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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



I 



SK. 1 



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MAY I BELIEYE? 



OR 



THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 



/ 



BY THE 

EEV. ALFRED HAMILTON, D. D. 



PHILADELPHIA : 
PEESBYTEEIAX BOARD OF PUBLICATION; 

NO. 821 CHESTNUT STREET. 



/SrT-9 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by 

JAMES DUNLAP, Treas., 

in the Clerk's OfiSce of the District Court for the Eastern District 

of Pennsylvania. 



STEREOTYPED BY 

JESPER HARDING & SON, 

INQUIRE a BUILDING, SOUTH THIRD STREET, PHILADELPHIA. 



CONTENTS. 







PAQB 


Preface, 


• • 


. 5 


The sinner secure, 


• 


11 


A change comes, . 


• • 


. 12 


Difficulties — grounds of doubt, . 


• 


14 


Glimpses through the gloom, 


• • 


. 17 


The indispensable. 


• 


19 


There is a warrant. 


• • 


. 22 


Faith in Jesus Christ a duty, . 


« 


23 


What has been may be, 


• • 


, 33 


What is true of all. 


• « 


35 


Special cases, 


• • 


. 39 


A woman which was a. sinner, . 


• 1 


40 


The thief upon the cross, , 


• • 


. 43 


Saul of Tarsus, 


• 1 


50 


A group of cases, . 


• • 


. 53 


The argument direct, from holy Scripture, 


72 


A recapitulation, . 


• 


. 84 


What yet remains, 


• « 


86 


The sufficiency of this warrant, 


• • 


. 88 


Perplexing questions, . 


• 


93 


Conclusion, 


• • 


. 132 



(3) 






i 



PREFACE. 



-♦-^ 



Early in my ministerial life I was sent to a 
.vacant churcli in the Presbytery of Ohio. I was 
entertained at the house of a good man, a RuliDg 
Elder, but I missed the presence of his wife. 
During the evening after my arrival, I learned 
that she was an invalid and confined mainly to her 
own room ; that while she was oppressed by physi- 
cal disease, she was yet more oppressed by a deep, 
Bottled melancholy, arising from the firm belief 
that for her there was no mercy with God. Her 
whole countenance was haggard, and the very 
sight filled one with distress. She had been so 
for a long time, and I know not that she ever was 
relieved. 

Before leaving the house for the churcTi on 
Sabbath morning, I was permitted an interview 
1^ (5) 



b 1>REFACE. 

with her, and spent perhaps a full hour, in en- 
deavouring to awaken hope within her, by dwell- 
ing upon the nature of the gospel covenant, the 
infinite sufficiency of Christ, and the eternal, un- 
changeable love of God. It was all in vain ; her 
reply was with painful persistency, " It may be for 
others, not for me/' 

Later in my ministry, and after I had been 
called east of the mountains, while assisting Bro. 
W., then of White Clay Creek, Del., a young lady 
whose countenance and whole appearance indicated 
deep distress was pointed out to me, with the re- 
quest that I would converse with her. 

I found her under a conviction of sin so deep 
and clear as to justify her in the conclusion that 
mercy was an impossibility in her case. She was 
certainly a castaway, and was now experiencing a 
foretaste of the anguish of eternal despair. No 
presentation of the gospel offer, its freeness, its 
fulness, its design for the chief of sinners, could 
gain the least believing attention. For a long time 
she remained under the cloud. ' I have not seen 
her for years, but she found relief; and I was 
gratified even recently, to learn that she was now 
a cheerful, earnest Christian. In various other 
instances I have met with persons who for a short 



I 



PREFACE. 7 

time have been overwhelmed with this fearful 
conviction. 

While I have learned that, in such cases, nothing 
but the illumination and sanctifying work of the 
Holy Spirit can give deliverance ; yet I have also 
learned that the Spirit works through the truth, 
and that only as we learn and appreciate the truth 
of God's word, can we arrive at clear, settled, 
cheerful hopes of mercy through Jesus Christ. 
Should any one therefore ask why I venture to 
publish a book of this character, I have but one 
answer to make. 

A desire to aid all persons subjected to such 
darkness of mind, to find the immediate and perfect 
relief which the gospel of the grace of God gives, 
has suggested the work and urged its preparation. 

I have been personally greatly benefitted, com- 
forted, sustained, and strengthened by the consider- 
ation of the various truths here presented. I have 
written of things which I do know, by which I 
have been raised from despair to hope, and in many 
conflicts, made to triumph, through our Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

But are there not works enough on such a sub- 
ject ? Why multiply books ? 

There are many precious works which, if access- 



8 PREFACE. 

ible, might answer every purpose of this kind ; and 
yet this particular subject has not been made a 
specialty, except perhaps in a few cases. Owen 
on the 130th Psalm contains the most extended 
consideration of this point, of all the works I now 
recollect. And this too is a work of great power j 
but it is within the reach of few, and its style is 
by no means attractive to the mass of readers. 
Besides it seems a law of providence that, in some 
form, each age must provide its own instruction in 
every department, scientific or religious. The 
truth may be the same, must be, but then it must 
appear in modern forms and in combinationa 
adapted to present, not past, trains and modes of 
thought. There is but one book of universal adap- 
tation. 

The most recent work on this subject, except per- 
haps some purely controversial issues, is the 
'' Warrant of FaitV' by the late Dr. Thomas Scott, 
author of the Commentary. Even this work is 
more controversial than strictly practical. 

Under these circumstances I have thought there 
might possibly be room for some such work as this, 
and though I have not been free from misgivings, 
yet having the judgment of two friends whose praise 
is in all the churches, I have concluded to ask for 



PREFACE. 9 

it a birthriglit among tlie offspring of our Board 
of Publication. 

I tremble at the responsibilities of a preacher 
of the gospel ; those of an author are enhanced by 
the fact that a book may reach where no living 
voice can^ may be read and exert its influence long 
after the writer may have gone to his account. 

Yet I must confess that a desire to be useful to 
others, even long after my decease, has exerted its 
stimulus in the production of these pages. May 
the good in them be blest ; the evil forgiven and 
overruled for good. My work in the preparation 
of these sheets has by no means been continuous. 
Many and long interruptions have occurred, and 
this very likely has produced blemishes, which a 
critic may severely condemn. Such as it is, it has 
been prepared in the midst of many and widely 
extended pastoral cares and labours. 

If any one shall think it to be a very imperfect 
work, I have this advantage of him that I have 
thought so before him. Yet with all its imperfec- 
tions I venture to send it forth on its errand, ask- 
ing for it the tender charities of those who would 
regard it simply as critics; and from those who are 
in a condition to need such counsel and instruction 



10 PREFACE. 

as I have here attempted to give, I ask an earnest, 
careful, and prayerful perusal. 

My great desire is that it may be blessed of God 
to souls under the various circumstances suggested 
in its pages, that it may relieve many from a sor- 
row brooding despair, that it may set many a 
burdened conscience free, decide many to an im- 
mediate choice of the gospel, and a firm, joyful 
belief in the mercy of God through Jesus Christ. 

If this desire can be granted, I shall feel per- 
fectly satisfied to bear the reproach of all the 
rhetorical blemishes which may be discovered ; all 
the defects of composition and style which no doubt 
abound. 

The minds of many are now turned to the sub- 
ject of religion ; my hope is that all such may be 
aided, strengthened, stablished by these pages. 
To their attention it is humbly but earnestly com- 
mended. 

My brethren in the ministry may possibly find 
it adapted to the spiritual condition of some in 
their flocks ; and in this hope I commend it also to 
their attentive examination and cordial approval. 

Alfred Hamilton. 

COCHRANVILLE, Pa. May, 1859. 



• 



MAY I BELIEYE? 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 



-•-•- 



THE SINNER SECURE. 

There are times when men feel no interest 
in religion, and no anxiety about personal sal- 
Tation. Then no doubts disturb the peace of 
the soul, and no fears harass the conscience. 
The world is full of absorbing interest — busi- 
ness prospers — cares engross — pleasures al- 
lure. If there be another world, the best 
preparation for it is to possess and enjoy the 
utmost possible of this. God did not make us 
and place us here with natures so adapted to 
its objects, pursuits, and pleasures, to punish 
us, if we committed ourselves to them, and 

sought their enlarged enjoyment. "Whilst 

(11) 



12 MAY I BELIEVE? 

we live let us live." "Adieu to melancholy." 
"Drive dull care away." — So men argue; so 
they try to feel and sing. This is their high- 
est religion ; they certainly are safe ; they be- 
lieve they are in no danger ; indeed seldom, 
if ever, think of danger. 

Reader, are you in this state of mind ? Are 
you thus secure in your own estimation ? Is 
this world your whole possession ? And 
should you be suddenly called to part with it, 
have you no lurking doubts about your final 
safety ? Perhaps you had better think. 

A CHANGE COMES. 

It is not always so with all. Many may be 
at ease, and resolve every question of their 
acceptance with God with unhesitating prompt- 
ness; yet a few have their own difficulties, 
and are often ready to conclude, that what- 
ever may be the ground of hope or confidence 
on the part of others, they certainly are not 
safe — nay, not only not safe, but unworthy 
to indulge a hope of safety — to think even of 
the possibility of such a thing. Once they 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 13 

might have indulged a hope ; increasing expe- 
rience, and knowledge of self, now so operate, 
as not only to awaken doubt on this subject, 
but to render hope a baseless presumption. 
" I am truly a great sinner ;'' ''I am wretched 
beyond description, and have so treated God, 
as that, though others may hope, I may not ; 
though there be mercy for others, can there 
be for me ? Others are called upon to live 
and walk by faith — to find by faith the peace 
of God which passeth all understanding ; but 
may I believe ? 

So one here and there feels, and reasons 
with himself, and about his own condition. 
Occasionally numbers are aroused from their 
false and dreamy security, and after many 
struggles, each one is led to ponder this mo- 
mentous question — May I believe ? Eeader, 
how is it with you? Have you discovered 
any thing in yourself, to suggest a doubt as to 
whether you may enjoy such a privilege ? 

Truly, sir, I have ; and for some time past, 
I have thought of little else; and have felt 
that if I might believe, I should be but too 



14 



MAY I BELIEVE t 



happy. Sir, do you think such a privilege 
can be mine ? May I believe ? 

DIFFICULTIES — aROUNDS OF DOUBT. 

Gladly will I endeavour to answer your 
question, and remove your distress, but I 
wish first to know why you desire to believe ; 
and then why you apprehend any difiiculty on 
the subject ? 

Why sir, I once was gay and thought- 
less — a lover of life and pleasure — and 
neglected wholly the interests of the soul. 
Religion was to me a gloomy, if not utterly 
repulsive thing ; and though I was carefully 
raised, and taught to perform many religious 
duties, and was even fond of some of them, 
such as public service on the Sabbath ; yet I 
never had a heart to regard and appreciate 
them as a means of grace — as acts of cheerful 
obedience to God ; hence I was a mere formal- 
ist — yet I was not happy. The conviction 
often flashed upon my mind, that I was not 
safe; conscience was only partially asleep, 
and often gave me moments of intense agony. 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 15 

This embittered my worldly pleasures, and 
drove me for a time to more frequency and 
earnestness in religious duties ; but still per- 
manent peace did not come ; the conviction 
deepened that I was a guilty sinner, without 
a Saviour ; and now, sir, my whole mind is filled 
with this one thought, I must have an interest 
in Jesus Christ as my Saviour, or perish ; this 
I can secure only by faith. I once thought it 
an easy matter to believe ; faith, in my appre- 
hension, was something which I did not, in- 
deed, clearly understand, but which, neverthe- 
less, I supposed could be most readily ex- 
ercised; and often on this ground deferred 
the duty, even when urged from the pulpit or 
the Bible to accept of Christ at once. I now 
find my error, and am distressed to think that 
many are similarly involved. I wish to believe, 
therefore, that I may be saved ; and my diffi- 
culty is that my sins are of so long standing, 
so many, and so aggravated — that I have 
slighted and neglected the calls of God so long, 
that now he will either not permit me to believe, 
or will not give me strength to do so. 



16 MAY I BELIEVE? 

I have learned in my struggles and distress 
what I either did not know, or did not appre- 
ciate, both that faith is a privilege, and that 
divine aid is essential to its exercise. And 
this reminds me of a^nother element in my past 
folly, as well as of others, who think it easy 
to believe, and that they can do so in their 
own strength. I felt not, nor do they now, 
that it is a gift of God and can be exercised 
only under the quickening power of his divine 
Spirit. When refused but once, when rejected 
for the first time, Grod would be just to with- 
hold the privilege, to withdraw the offer, and 
withhold all spiritual aid to accept it ; how 
much more, when slighted, neglected, despised, 
or misimproved for years ! 

Alas ! sir, how long have I lived a wretch 
upon God's footstool, despising his mercies, 
and neglecting, nay, rejecting his unspeakable 
gift, the Lord Jesus Christ as my Saviour! 
Can I be forgiven, for such accumulated sins, 
such aggravated guilt? May I believe? 
Will God still accord the privilege ? Will he 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 17 

still Youclisafe the strength and power by 
which I may lay hold of eternal life ? 

GLIMPSES THROUGH THE GLOOM. 

Whatever God may design to do for you or 
with you, or whatever may be the result of 
this conference, in reference to your peace and 
joy in God, this I must be permitted to say : 
first, that however clearly you may now see 
your sin and guilt, or however deeply you 
may feel them a loathsome burden before God, 
justly exposing you to his displeasure, you 
do not see nor feel a hundredth part of their 
real enormity ; and it is a far greater wonder 
that God should permit you to live upon his 
footstool than you can possibly conceive it to 
be. His patience, his forbearance are indeed 
beyond all creature apprehension, and you 
therefore do well to feel and express the deep- 
est wonder and the most grateful emotions 
that he should have spared you under such 
circumstances, and brought you to see your- 
self as you now do. He has surely done it ; 
and hence I say, secondly, that you appear to 
2* 



18 MAY I BELIEVE ? 

be thus far well and truly taught. This is in 
accordance with the divine plan : " They shall 
be all taught of God;" and surely they are 
well taught whom he teaches. 

This therefore is encouraging for you. 
Why has he done so much for you ? Has he 
brought you into the wilderness only to slay 
you ? Has he shown you your sins only to 
plunge you into deserved despair and death ? 
He might do so. He might reveal your guilt 
to awaken your self-condemnation, and thus 
justify in your own conscience his righteous 
judgment in rejecting you. He has done 
much for you ; but unless he do more, you are 
wretched and miserable for ever. But the 
fact that he has done as he has, is an argu- 
ment which you may use in prayer, and ask 
him to bless, and crown his own work. " Dark 
waters and thick clouds,'' seem to surround 
him, yet here and there the dark masses are 
not so dense, and thence come glimpses of the 
star of Bethlehem, inspiring hope that the 
storm may yet pass away, that the deep 
fissures and lofty towers of that dark cloud 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 19 

may yet be spanned with the bow of promise, 
and the light which radiates from the mercy- 
seat, may yet fill thy soul with joy and peace in 
believing. The leaden sky may yet " dapple 
into day," and thy light be as the light of the 
sun rising in his brightness. 

THE INDISPENSABLE. 

Still, encouragement is not consummation, 
feeling is not faith, nor is anxiety, nor yet 
deep distress. 

Faith must be exercised or all will be lost. 
^'He that believeth not shall be damned." 
This you seem to feel ; but do you comprehend 
the precise nature of that state of mind, that 
exercise of heart which you call faith or be- 
lief? Are you seeking merely some relief, or 
do you feel that "none but Jesus can do help- 
less sinners good;'' and is faith the only 
method of communication with him, the only 
principle which will identify you with him, 
and give you an absolute interest in his entire 
salvation ? Feeling this, do you desire to re- 
ceive and rest upon him, that you may be freed 



20 MAY I BELIEVE? 

from the present power and dominion of sin ; 
from its condemnation before God, and even- 
tually from its very being ? Are you sick of 
sin? and tired, disappointed, and despairing 
under the treatment of all other physicians, 
do you seek to commit yourself without con- 
dition to his infallibly successful practice ? 
Do you understand his salvation to be a 
sovereign remedy for sin in all its forms ? Is 
sin, your sin, your fountain of sorrow, your 
source of anxiety and fear ? Do you under- 
stand that Christ in his person gave himself 
as a vicarious sacrifice for sin ; — that his suffer- 
ings were, and are accepted of Grod as a per- 
fect satisfaction to his law and justice ; — that 
now he is '^ exalted a Prince and a Saviour" to 
give repentance and forgiveness of sin, being 
" able to save to the uttermost, all that come 
unto God by him ;" — that now, moreover, the 
entire work of salvation from the first saving 
conviction to the crown of glory, is carried 
forward only by Jesus Christ, through the 
various means of grace ? and is it your desire to 
participate in this work and all its contempla- 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 21 

ted blessings ? Loathing sin, renouncing the 
world, the flesh, and the devil, do you come 
feeling that faith in Christ is God's only ap- 
pointed means of salvation ? And when you 
ask. May I believe ? do you mean to ask, Is there 
warrant for one such as I, to accept of such a 
Christ for such a salvation ? Will God grant 
me both the privilege and power to accept of 
Christ as my sacrifice, to present him as my 
substitute, and stand in his righteousness, with 
joyous confidence that because he "lives I 
shall live also V 

^' My faith would lay her hand 
Oq that dear head of thine, 
While like a penitent I stand, 
And there confess my sin." 

Or in the language of another verse of the 
same hymn, do you desire to say, 

''My soul looks back to see 

The burden thou didst bear, 
When hanging on the cursed tree, 
And hopes her guilt was there ?" 



22 MAY I BELIEVE ? 



THERE IS A WARRANT. 

In drawing out your views in reference, first, 
to your own condition, and then as to the na- 
ture and effects of faith in Christ, I have had 
an object before me ; namely, so to concentrate 
your attention upon your condition, and the 
kind of remedy you really desire, as to guard 
you against delusion on one hand, and prepare 
you, on the other, to appreciate the important 
truth now to be submitted to your considera- 
tion. 

For any soul sincerely desirous to escape' 
from hell and fly to heaven, there is the full- 
est possible warrant to believe in Jesus Christ 
as " the way, the truth, and the life \" more es- 
pecially is this the case, where there exists a 
deep consciousness of personal unworthiness — 
a suitable appreciation of the appointed means, 
and a settled purpose to abandon every thing 
else, and depend wholly upon them. This I 
take to be your case, and while I might per- 
haps say, as is true, that the desire of grace is 
grace ; yet such a truth you are not now pre- 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 23 

pared to appreciate ; therefore in pursuing my 
design of unfolding to you the fulness and 
sufficiency of the warrant upon which you 
may believe in Jesus Christ, let me ask you 
to consider carefully and with prayer the follow- 
ing suggestions. 

FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST A DUTY. 

When the Great Teacher was on earth, cer- 
tain Jews said to him, "What shall we do, 
that we might work the works of God ? To 
whom he returned this answer, " This is the 
work of God that ye believe on him whom he 
hath sent." John vi. 28, 29. 

While men, therefore, are inquiring now as 
those did then, " What must we work T' the an- 
swer is the same as then, and everywhere 
applicable. This is the work God now spe- 
cially requires, " that ye believe on him whom 
he hath sent." 

Faith in Jesus Christ is then the first duty 
of every man under the gospel dispensation. 
While the first covenant was in force, the ser- 
vice was called obedience; which of course 



24 MAY r BELIEVE? 

involved not only outward submission to, but 
inward acquiescence with, all divine require- 
ments. Hence supreme regard for the author- 
ity which prescribed the service. 

Now that which was called, under or in 
reference to the law, simply obedience, becomes 
under the gospel, the obedience of faith. 
Hence the Apostle Paul declares that the 
preaching of the gospel was by the command- 
ment of the everlasting God, to make known 
to all nations for the obedience of faith, the 
mystery which was kept secret since the world 
began. Eom. xvi. 25, 26. And what in the 
first chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, he 
calls the faith, in the sixteenth chapter, he 
calls obedience. Rom. i. 8, 16, 19. 

Of himself he says, that he had received 
grace and apostleship, for obedience to the 
faith among all nations. Rom. i, 5. And the 
Eyangeliat Luke records. Acts vi. 7, '^And 
a great company of the priests were obedient 
to the faith." 

The service sought and claimed by God un- 
der the gospel is an obedience of faith, a work 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 25 

of faith; and a moment's consideration will 
enable us to perceive not only why it is called 
the obedience of faith, but why this must be 
the essential element of all obedience. 

At and after the fall of man, his mind be- 
came alienated from God, and filled with fear 
and suspicion both as to his power and pur- 
poses. In such a state of mind, no service 
can be full and joyous, nor can any be really 
acceptable to God. Love can find no place in 
such a heart ; and a service without love can 
never receive the seal of divine approbation. 

To remove this, God, in his infinite conde- 
scension, has given his well beloved Son as 
the pledge of his reconciliation ; as the surety 
to men, that renouncing their sins, abandon- 
ing their rebellion, their suspicion and fear, 
and accepting the pardon he offers in Christ, 
they shall be received into his favour, adopted 
into his family, and made heirs of eternal life. 
To believe in Christ, therefore, is to believe 
God's sincerity in the offers of pardon to the 
guilty, and cordially to accept and rely upon the 
fulness, the sufficiency of the provision he has- 



26 MAY I BELIEVE? 

made for a perpetual restoration to his favour. 
God's word is law to the creature ; compliance 
with his word is obedience to it. His word 
commands faith in Jesus Christ : " This is my 
beloved Son; hear him.'' Luke ix. 35. '^A 
prophet shall the Lord your Grod raise up unto 
you of your brethren like unto me ; him shall 
ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say 
unto you." Acts iii. 22. And this is his com- 
mandment that "we should believe on the 
name of his Son Jesus Christ." 1 John iii. 23. 
To believe in Jesus Christ as he is set forth 
and offered to us in the gospel, is to obey God; 
it is, therefore, the obedience of faith, an ap- 
proval of God's law, confidence in his faith- 
fulness, and an acceptance of the provision he 
has made for reconciliation to him, and there- 
fore of eternal salvation. 

Faith in Christ is then not only obedience, 
but the essential element of all obedience. 

The first covenant being violated becomes 
void ; it can therefore afford or secure no com- 
munion with God. 

The second covenant, which is the gospel, is 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 27 

now in force, administered by a mediator, 
even Christ ; the acceptance of this covenant 
is obedience to the will of God; this obedience 
is faith. 

That all men are bound in duty to accept 
this covenant, and therefore to believe in the 
Lord Jesus, is manifest from many considera- 
tions. 

It is the duty of every creature to obey its 
Creator. Will any one deny this ? 

The Creator of men commands them to be- 
lieve in the name of his Son Jesus Christ. 
1 John iii. 23. Can this either be denied ? 

The law itself to which men cling with so 
much tenacity, requires them to render im- 
plicit obedience to God, and to use all lawful 
means to secure their own highest welfare. 
But what can compare in value with the soul 
and its salvation ? 

The law then urges the creature, and espe- 
cially the sinful creature, man, to seek salva- 
tion in Jesus Christ, and thus, as the apostle 
declares, "the law is our schoolmaster to bring 



28 MAY I BELIEVE? 

US to Christ, that we might be justified by 
faith.'' Gal. iii. 24. 

We might enlarge upon this point and ex- 
pand the argument almost indefinitely, but it 
is unnecessary. He who will deny the posi- 
tions taken, might feel at liberty to deny any- 
thing. And with such we cannot now con- 
tend. God now commands all men every 
where to honour the Son as they honour the 
Father. John v. 22, 23. He who refuses, 
refuses at his peril. 

But if it be the duty of all men to believe 
in our Lord Jesus Christ, then you reader, 
you anxious inquirer, you doubting sinner, 
may certainly believe. Your duty and your 
privilege are, in this respect at least, co-ordi- 
nate. 

That which God makes your duty, he puts 
within the reach of appointed means; and 
these not only involve the purpose of God 
that the thing may be done ; but the pledge 
of eflBciency, through divine aid, in every 
scriptural use of them or dependence upon 
them. Hence the exhortation : " Work out your 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 29 

own salvation, with fear and trembling. For 
it is God which worketh in you, both to will 
and to do of his good pleasure." Phil. ii. 12, 
13. And hence especially the promise, ''Ask 
and it shall be given you ; seek and ye shall 
find; knock and it shall be opened unto you." 
Matt. vii. 7. 

This matter of duty is not suflSciently con- 
sidered; or if considered, not understood by 
minds exercised for the first time about per- 
sonal salvation. The duty involves the privi- 
lege ; and the privilege the pledge of divine 
acceptance in entering upon it as required. 

To feel assured then that you^ whatever 
specialty there may be about your case, may 
believe, you have but to settle the question of 
duty. 

If it be your duty, it is your privilege : and 

while Satan may take especial pains to hide 

this from you, or prevail on you to reject it ; 

yet before you can rightfully deny the one, or 

doubt the other, you must prove either that 

you are not a creature of God (for if you are, 

you are bound to obey him, and the obedience 
3* 



30 MAY I BELIEVE ? 

of the gospel is faith in Jesus Christ) ; or that 
God requires a duty which he will not aid or 
enable you to perform; or that you, while 
surrounded with the means of grace, and with 
a conscience tender and distressed on account 
of sin — with a heart esteeming it the greatest 
privilege in the world to be permitted to be- 
lieve in Christ, and therefore still under the 
quickening influences and promptings of the 
Holy Spirit — have either wholly sinned away 
your day of grace, or are already in the world 
of despair. But can you prove either of these 
things ? Will you deliberately undertake to 
do either ? If not, then admitting, in all its 
force, the duty, will you doubt and reject the 
privilege ? 

This is offensive to God, and ruinous both 
to your own peace and usefulness. What 
would you think of a child, who, when sur- 
rounded by special tokens of his father's 
favour, should say. My father does not love 
me ; these are tokens of his favour, but they 
are not for me ? Who when called and com- 
manded to come to his father's outstretched 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 81 

arms, should yet say. It is my duty to obey, 
but I fear my father will not permit me to 
come ? 

Is not such conduct to be condemned as 
utterly inexcusable ? And yet wherein does 
it diflfer from yours ? If there be any differ- 
ence, is it not in favour of the child ? An 
earthly parent may invite only to taunt, may 
command only to exercise authority and vex, 
or may repent and repel the child in the very 
act of coming ; but this can never be with God. 
" For the gifts and calling of God are without 
repentance.'* Rom. xi. 29. His command 
involves both an invitation and a promise, and 
all the promises of God "in him [Christ] 
are yea, and in him amen, unto the glory of 
God by us." 2 Cor. i. 20. 

To doubt the privilege is to doubt the truth 
and faithfulness of God in Christ ; and this is 
to tempt him to leave you a prey to your own 
corruptions, or to the terrors of the adversary. 
You will seek for peace, or hope for usefulness 
in vain, while you hesitate and stand aloof 
from Christ. Your only hope is to cry with 



32 MAY I BELIEVE? 

the distressed father, "Lord I believe: help 
thou mine unbelief." Mark ix. 24. 

The sincere willingness on your part to 
accept the privilege, is the best evidence you 
can have that you may accept it. 

Such willingness is not natural, but gracious, 
and therefore the assured evidence not only 
that God has wrought it, but that he will ac- 
cept his own signature, and crown his own 
work with peace and joy. Be not faithless 
therefore, but believing. John xx. 27. In 
Christ you receive grace for grace, John i. 16, 
and your strength comes by taking hold of 
him. Isa. xxvii. 4. " He giveth power to the 
faint ; and to them that have no might, he in- 
creaseth strength. Even the youths shall 
faint and be weary, and the young men shall 
utterly fall ; but they that wait upon the Lord 
shall renew their strength ; they shall mount 
up with wings as eagles ; they shall run and 
not be weary ; and they shall walk and not 
faint." Isa. xl. 29—31. 

In this, as in many other things, your power 
comes with its exercise. Does duty urge you 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 33 

to accept of Christ ? Though feeling utterly 
helpless, rise up to its fulfilment. Does the 
privilege open to you through the duty? 
Enter upon it with what strength you may, 
and you may soon have occasion to exclaim, " In 
the Lord have I righteousness and strength." 
Isa. xlv. 24. 

WHAT HAS BEEN MAY BE. 

But let me lead you into another field of 
thought, where perhaps we may find something 
to suit your case. 

Suppose we can find instances in which God 
has manifestly led and enabled persons to be- 
lieve, who so far, at least, as overt, outward 
acts are considered, were much more deeply 
involved in guilt than you ; would not this 
afi'ord a strong presumptive argument that 
you too may have, nay, have, the same privi- 
lege ? 

While grace is sovereign, we cannot certainly 
argue from one case to another ; yet the same 
sovereignty, which is at liberty to accept of 
one, is under no obligations to reject another. 



34 



MAY I BELIEVE? 



While God showetli mercy to whom he will ; 
it is not of necessity but of will, that he hardens 
any; see Rom. ix. 18. And his independence, 
as proclaimed to Moses, is still his glory, and 
the strong encouragement of troubled, anxious 
sinners, ^'and will be gracious to whom I will 
be gracious, and will show mercy to whom I 
will show mercy." Exod. xxxiii. 19. 

When in doubt, therefore, as to a privilege 
for which we cannot plead an express personal 
warrant, we may look at the history of God's 
sovereign grace, and from it conclude, at least, 
that if you may not hope, you may rest, you 
have no right to despair. 

No matter what your case may be ; whether 
you be a Lazarus or a Dives ; a thief on the 
cross or a young ruler ; you may not argue 
similarity of treatment from mere similarity 
of outward condition, nor indeed from mere 
approximate moral character. With God, 
there is no respect of persons ; no sinner can 
deserve Divine favour ; and while no measure 
of personal morality or goodness can demand 
acceptance with God, no measure of guilt, 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 35 

unless it involves blasphemy against the Holy 
Ghost, need exclude from his favour, or justify 
you in despair or even in hesitation, to accept 
the overtures of the gospel. 

There may be such peculiarity in your case, 
that though to yourself, you may appear to be 
worse than others ; nevertheless, the way being 
yet open, by this continual offer of the gospel 
and the work of the Spirit, you still have the 
privilege of entering into covenant with God, 
and finding peace through Jesus Christ. The 
value of examples, therefore, ought not to be 
lightly prized by you. 

WHAT IS TRUE OF ALL? 

Consider then, first, that no one has ever 
yet been saved but as a sinner — even a great 
sinner. 

The very object of the gospel is to save sin- 
ners. This was the purpose for which Christ 
said he came. Matt. ix. 13. On the same 
ground he said, " There is joy in the presence 
of the angels of God over one sinner that re- 
penteth." Luke xv. 7, 10. And did you never 



36 MAY I BELIEVE? 

think of the fact that the Saviour commanded 
the gospel to be preached first in Jerusalem. 
Listen to his words as addressed to his chosen 
disciples just before his ascension, " Thus it is 
written, and thus it behoved Christ to suiFer, 
and to rise from the dead the third day ; and that 
repentance and remission of sins should be 
preached in his name, among all nations, be- 
ginning at Jerusalem. '' Luke xxiv. 46, 47. 

^'Beginning at Jerusalem;" why? That 
Jerusalem sinners might be saved. But how 
does a Jerusalem sinner differ from others ? 
Only in the fact that they enjoyed his personal 
preaching and repented not ; saw his miracles 
and believed not ; devised, or consented to, or 
witnessed without protest his malignant perse- 
cution, his unjust condemnation, his shameful 
crucifixion. 

Does such conduct entitle them to any es- 
pecial favour ? Or does it create any ante- 
cedent probability that such could be saved ? 
By no means. Why then begin at Jerusalem ? 

(1.) Doubtless to display the tender, earnest, 
compassionate sympathy which God feels for 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 3T 

poor, guilty, wretched sinners. ( 2.) To display 
the mighty power of his grace as revealed 
through the gospel, in being able to subdue even 
such hearts. ( 3.) And very especially to show 
that the very chief of sinners need not de- 
spair. 

If Jerusalem sinners can be saved, what 
other class of sinners need despair ? No one 
is saved but as a sinner, and if God will accept 
one, whose lips perhaps taunted and re- 
proached that meek sufferer, whose eyes 
gloated with delight upon the agony of his 
breaking heart, or whose hand, perchance, 
may be yet reeking with his blood, can any 
one else doubt ? Especially can you ? 

Take the fullest measurement of your own 

sins you choose, can they exceed in magnitude 

and guilt those of the Jerusalem sinner ? Can 

they exceed the reach of infinite compassion ? 

What, my friend, can go beyond infinity? 

And is there not infinity of value in the blood 

of Christ, to redeem, to pardon, to cleanse? 

Admit, that you are the chief of sinners, are 

you more or worse ? Can you be ? Can any 
4 



38 MAY I BELIEVE ? 

one? Thougli then you be chief, here are 
others just as 'chief who are saved. Need 
you, can you, without new and greater sin, 
despair ? 

If in your darkness, and brooding upon 
your sorrows, you are ready to say, '' God 
hath forgotten to be gracious," "he will be 
merciful no more ;" we answer. It is not so, 
you are mistaken; " God is love," and there- 
fore, "ready to forgive." 1 John iv. 8, 16. 
Ps. Ixxxvi. 5. 

Or if you ask, "What of the night?" the 
answer is very clear and prompt to this, as 
well as the prophet's question, " The morning 
cometh and also the night ; if ye will inquire, 
inquire ye ; return, come." Isa. xxi. 11. 

What has been, may be ; and though it be 
but a peradventure, it is sufficient to encour- 
age you to apply to Him, who has said, " I 
will be gracious to whom I will be gracious ; 
and will show mercy to whom I will show 
mercy." 

If none are saved but as sinners ; and if Jer- 
usalem sinners may be saved, then you have 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 39 

no right to despair. ^'If ye "will inquire, 
inquire ye ; return, come." Before I leave 
this point, let me recommend you to read, if 
you can get it, Bunyan's '' Jerusalem Sinner 
Saved;" you will find much in it to instruct, 
and it may be to profit. 

SPECIAL CASES. 

But general truths, however useful, are not 
always as satisfactory as could be desired. 
Will the general truth cover particular and 
special cases enough to convince me that I too 
may find a place among them ? This must be 
so ; for if the general cover not the particu- 
lar, either the general is not true, or the par- 
ticular is removed by special exception. 

To illustrate : we have the general truth 
stated in 1 John i. 7, "And the blood of Jesus 
Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." 
Now if this include not every sin ; then it is 
either not true, or the one not included must 
be removed by special exception, and either 
itself or its class recited that we may know 
it. 



40 MAY I BELIEVE? 

But in this case the truth of every par« 
ticular depends upon the truth of the univer- 
sal, and hence we are justified in saying to 
you that if any one may believe, you may. 

If the general truth, '' The blood of Jesus 
Christ cleanseth us from all sin,'' must cover 
every particular, unless specifically excepted ; 
so in like manner must the general invitation, 
'' Whosoever will, let him take of the water 
of life freely," Rev. xxii. 17, embrace every 
individual, unless excluded by name or by 
class. 

We really need therefore but the general 
or universal truth that the chief of sinners 
may believe and be saved, to present the fullest 
encouragement to every troubled soul ; yet a 
few striking examples may not be without 
their value. 

A WOMAN WHICH WAS A SINNER. 

Look then at that scene as described in 
Luke vii. 37 — 50. While the Saviour was 
dining with a Pharisee, an incident of a 
peculiar and striking character occurred. Un- 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 41 

expectedly a woman bathed in tears stood 
behind the Saviour at his feet — those tears 
fell upon his feet — she stooped and wiped 
them with her hair — she kissed them, and 
poured upon them her precious ointment. 

Who was she ? One of virtuous and re- 
spectable character and life ? Directly the 
reverse. A woman of notoriously bad charac- 
ter — of immoral and dissolute life. Her very 
presence was an offence in that assembly, and 
her touch thought to be defilement. Surely, 
thought the host, if this is a prophet, he will 
know the character of this woman and forbid 
her his presence; yet there she stood, and 
wept, and washed and kissed his feet, and 
filled the room with the odour of the precious 
ointment she poured upon them. Was she 
not a sinner ? How deeply had she fallen ! 
Did not the Saviour know the full extent of 
all her crimes ? Surely he did. Why then 
did he not spurn her from his presence ? 
Just because he came to call, not the right- 
eous, but sinners, to repentance. But can 
there be mercy for such as she? Can she 
4* 



42 MAY I BELIEVE ? 

hope to be forgiven? After all her life of sin, 
can she now find pardon and peace with God? 
Does not God abhor the sinner, and especially, 
one so vile as she ? The Pharisee loathes her 
presence, and concludes against the Son of 
man, because he did not at once reject her, and 
cast her from him unpitied and unpardoned. 
So man may judge his fellow man; but not so 
He who came to seek and to save the lost. 
Her tears flow from a broken heart, and these 
acts are a public renunciation of her pagt life 
of sin, a pledge of devotion to new obedience 
in all time to come. Can she be accepted ? 
Yes, great as are her sins, numerous and ag- 
gravated and vile as any one can conceive 
them to be, they cannot exceed the limits of 
divine compassion; and hence when man 
would command her departure, and forbid her 
hope, the Saviour says: "Thy sins are for- 
given.'' "Thy faith hath saved thee; go in 
peace." What words are these ! Can it be? 
Thy sins are forgiven! "Thy sins!" all — 
every one ? Yes, all without exception. " Thy 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 43 

faith hath saved thee: go in peace." What 
precious words ! Go in peace. 

Troubled soul, is your case worse than this ? 
Take all your sins, with all their aggravations, 
will they exceed the extremity of this case ? 
If not, then arise and go at once to Him who 
says, ''Whosoever will, let him take of the 
water of life freely." Read this passage atten- 
tively and prayerfully, and see if it do not af- 
ford a full warrant for you to cast yourself on 
the mercy of God in Christ. 

THE THIEF UPON THE CROSS. 

Here is another scene of painful, but deep 
interest. The day on which the Prince of Life 
was crucified was made memorable, not alone 
by that one absorbing event, but by another, 
in which, though numbered with the trans- 
gressors, and in form a weak and suffering man, 
yet he manifested the dignity of his divine na- 
ture, exercised its prerogative, and confirmed 
the great truth of his life, that he '' came to 
save that which was lost." 

He refused to save himself from that hour, 



44 MAY I BELIEVE? 

though in view of it, his " soul was exceeding 
sorrowful even unto death;" yet the ruling 
object of his life could neither be forgotten 
nor foregone. " He came not to destroy but 
to save." But what opportunity could occur, 
in such extremity, to vindicate his divine na- 
ture and mission, as well as gratify the yearn- 
ings of his compassionate heart ? 

What thoughts could he spare {torn, his own 
deep sorrows to sympathize with the suffering 
of others, or feel the deep fountain of his com- 
passions stirred at the cry of a soul ready to 
perish ? Could it be possible that a charm so 
potent could be brought to bear upon his bur- 
dened heart, so that he should forget himself, 
to soothe another's woe ; and, while struggling 
with the thick coming billows of a sorrow, 
which none but himself could measure or en- 
dure, speak words of hope, of peace, and life, 
to a poor, suffering, guilty creature asking 
mercy at his hands ! ! 

This wonder was signally apparent on that 
day of wonders. Upon whom ? One of 
hitherto moral and respectable life? One 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 45 

who by some legal wrong was subjected to 
unrighteous suflfering, and who, though treated 
thus ignominiously by men, could have some 
hope from the fan-ness of his moral character 
with God ? Far from it. He who now cries 
to a suffering Saviour was steeped in crime ; a 
transgressor not only of man's laws but of 
God's. He was suffering justly, as he him- 
self acknowledged for the crime he had 
committed against men, and was imminently 
exposed to the righteous condemnation of God. 
This too he doubtless felt, and necessarily im- 
plied in the earnest prayer he addressed to the 
suffering Son of God : ^' Lord, remember me 
when thou comest into thy kingdom ! " Re- 
member me ! Even me ! Was not such prayer 
presumptuous madness ? How could one so 
vile venture to offer such a petition ? Are 
such creatures to be admitted to the society 
of the sanctified in the kingdom of Christ ? 
Can it be? Will Christ accept and pardon 
such ? 

Why such questions ? What is to hinder the 
answer of this prayer and the admission of 






46 MAY I BELIEVE? 

this poor sinner among the sanctified in the 
presence of God and the Lamb ? 

Has not God said, " I will be gracious to 
whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy 
to whom I will show mercy?" Exod. xxxiii. 
19. And did not the Saviour declare, " The 
Son of man is come to seek and save that 
which was lost?" Luke xix. 10. Is it not, 
moreover, clearly said of God, '' that the 
blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanse thus from 
all sin ?" IJohn i. 7. 

What then should hinder either the cry of 
this poor malefactor, or its answer of peace 
from the Saviour ? If the lost may be saved, 
why not this one ? Could one be more lost ? 

If the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from 
all sin, are the sins of this man beyond its 
power ? And if God says, '' Ho, every one 
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." (Isa. Iv. 
1,) may not this soul come ? 

But is he not a vile sinner, and utterly un- 
worthy of such a blessing or privilege ? Cer- 
tainly; but what of that? Are men saved 
because they deserve to be ? I thought the 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 47 

gospel was a proclamation of grace, that sal- 
vation by grace was its great glory. Do 
not you so understand it ? If so, then the 
very fact that he is a vile, unworthy sinner, 
makes him the fitter object of grace. The 
idea, that because he is a great sinner, he can- 
not be admitted to the mercy of God and the 
society of the pure and blessed, is wholly in- 
consistent with the gospel. It emanates from 
a legal spirit, is pharisaical and self-righteous. 

Mercy can be extended only to the vile, the 
guilty, the undeserving. The blessed at God's 
right hand are but vile sinners saved by grace. 
Salvation is the bestowment upon them of un- 
deserved favour, and involves the cleansing, 
sanctifying power of the Spirit to transform 
them into the likeness of Christ. 

So the Saviour thought; and therefore when 
this cry reached his ears, he spurned it not, 
nor did he reproach him for being a vile, 
unworthy sinner, but promptly said to him, 
'^ This day shalt thou be with me in Para- 
dise." 

Here then we have two great facts at which 



48 MAY I BELIEVE? 

to look. First, tbat the thief upon the cross 
was indeed a great sinner, a sinner unde- 
serving of any favour at the hand of God : 
yet, secondly, the Lord Jesus, even in the midst 
of his own sufferings, heard his penitent, be- 
lieving prayer, and accorded to him the as- 
sured hope of eternal life in his heavenly 
kingdom. Great as were his sins, they neither 
deterred him from applying to the Lord Jesus 
for deliverance from them ; nor did they cause 
this compassionate Redeemer to refuse his ap- 
plication. Whatever he was, and as he was, 
the Saviour despised him not, but pardoned 
and accepted him as righteous for his own 
name's sake. 

Does not this case afford suflScient encour- 
agement for you to cast yourself as you are 
upon the mercy of this tender sympathizing 
Saviour ? He rejected not a poor degraded 
convict, will he reject you? He despised not 
the cry of one whose crimes had brought him 
to the cross, will he withhold from you the re- 
lief you need? 

You may be indeed guilty ; but are you 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 49 

more guilty than this dying thief? Are you 
even as bad ? Admitting all that you can 
properly think or say of yourself, yet if Christ 
withheld not the smile of his favour and the 
assurance of his acceptance from the cruci- 
fied thief, have you any right to feel that you 
may not believe and be saved in like manner ? 
You need a fountain in which to wash away 
your guilt; but is there not a fountain 
opened? And may you not say, in the beau- 
tiful and expressive language of a familiar 
hymn, 

The dying thief rejoiced to see 

That fountain in his day, 
And there may I as vile as he 

Wash all my sins away ? 

Can you still have any cause to doubt or 
fear ? Beware lest you induce a morbid con- 
dition of mind, which will preclude your per- 
ception of the most appropriate truth, and the 
most scriptural encouragement to cast your- 
self upon the Lord. Many do this ; you may, 
and thus grieve the Holy Spirit, till he leave 
you to long and bitter conflicts with your sins.. 



50 MAY I BELIEVE ? 

This has been done in many cases, and may be 
in yours. The way is now open ; will you enter 
at once? The Saviour clearly says to you. 

** Just as thou art, without one trace 
Of love, or joy, or inward grace, 
Or meetness for the heavenly place, 
guilty sinner, come/^ 

Will you come now ? 

SAUL OF TARSUS. 

But here is still another case. 

A few pages back we were speaking of 
Jerusalem sinners. Let us look again at the 
sinners of that city. There is a large crowd 
of people, and all very much excited — watch 
them a moment — look at those men in the 
centre ; they cast oflf their outer garments and 
throw them at the feet of a young man, who 
heartily approves their purpose, and urges 
them to its fulfilment. They stoop and gather 
up stones, and watch, with indignant and im- 
patient anger, one near them, whose every 
look betokens a calm, fearless, yet meek and 
loving spirit. Their rage burns intensely ; 



I 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 51 

they can restrain it no longer; they rush 
upon him, and stone him to death ! Who is 
this man ? The proto-martyr Stephen. Who 
the young man that held the clothes of them 
that did this deed, and applauded all as a 
service done to God ? Saul of Tarsus. 

Who was he ? And what has he to do with 
a subject like this ? It was he that had that 
wonderful vision of the Lord, near Damascus, 
and became pre-eminently a servant of the 
crucified Nazarene and the great Apostle of the 
Gentiles. What ! this the man, who travelled, 
laboured, and wrote, and suffered so much for 
the cause and kingdom of Christ ! This man, 
who was " exceedingly mad" against all Christ- 
ians, and persecuted them even unto strange 
cities! Acts xxvi. 11. This man, who by 
his own showing was a persecutor, a blas- 
phemer, and injurious ! 1 Tim. i. 13. This 
man, with his heart full of enmity to God, and 
his hands reeking even with the blood of sufi'er- 
ing disciples, this man pardoned and accepted 
of God ? Can it be ! Was he permitted and 
enabled to believe? Does God receive such 



52 MAY I BELIEVE? 

sinners? Does the blood of Christ cleanse 
from such guilt ? Yes, it is even so. Saul 
of Tarsus was accepted of God for Christ's 
sake, and became an eminently godly man. 
He believed and was saved. 

Is your case worse than his ? Have you 
openly blasphemed, and persecuted, and in- 
jured the church of God ? Yet Saul did all 
this. And though he did it, he was still per- 
mitted to believe ; and believing, was " accepted 
in the Beloved." Eph. i. 6. 

Why then should you hesitate? Though 
you had done deeds even perfectly similar 
yet will not the case now before you fully war- 
rant even you to come ? Yes, this example 
of mercy encourages you to say, in the lan- 
guage of humble confidence, 

** Just as I am — without one plea, 
But that thy blood was shed for me, 
And that thou bidst me come to thee ; 
Lamb of God, I come. 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 53 



A GROUP OF CASES. 

But here are numerous other examples, to 
•which we can indeed scarcely more than refer, 
Tbut upon which you can dwell at your leisure ; and 
from them draw much encouragement for one 
truly oppressed with a sense of guilt and un- 
worthiness before God. 

If the greatness of a man's sins will exclude 
him from the privilege of believing, then all 
men will be excluded ; for one sin, even the 
smallest, is of magnitude suflScient to warrant 
his eternal condemnation. Sin, in its own na- 
ure, separates and excludes from Grod ; so that 
while "some sins in themselves, and by reason 
of their several aggravations, are more heinous 
in the sight of God than others ;" yet " every sin 
deserves God's wrath and curse, both in this 
life and that which is to come." All sins are 
great in their relation to the perfect and holy 
law of God ; all, therefore, may exclude from 
the mercy of God through faith. Especially 
may the sins involved in the present group be 
regarded as great, and those who committed 
5* 



54 MAY I BELIEVE ? 

them, beyond the reach of hope ; and yet we 
find that God did not deal with them as they 
deserved, he did not reward them according 
to their iniquities, they were great sinners, 
but they were forgiven ; and forgiveness can 
come only through faith, hence they were per- 
mitted and enabled to believe. 

Have you ever read the sad story of David's 
sin ? I take it for granted that you have. I 
suppose too, you have read the Psalm in which 
he recorded his deep penitential feelings. 
Psa. li. 

How fearful was his fall ! — the sin he com- 
mitted, a cruel and bloody one — a violation of 
the seventh commandment — then to conceal 
this, a violation of the sixth ! What a compli- 
cation of guilt ! How it struggles to conceal 
itself ! 

Can such combined and aggravated sin be 
forgiven ? Can the royal sinner be restored 
to Divine favour ? We might think not. Judg- 
ing on merely human principles, we should 
say he ought not to escape, and could not be 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 55 

admitted to share the mercy of One who hates 
iniquity and cannot look upon sin. 

So the royal culprit himself judged and 
feared. Hear how he pleads in that Psalm, 
" Have mercy upon me, God, according to 
thy loving-kindness ; according to the multi- 
tude of thy tender mercies, blot out my trans- 
gressions.'' " Hide thy face from my sins, 
and blot out all my iniquities." '' Cast me 
not away from thy presence ; and take not thy 
Holy Spirit from me.'' 

Mercy exists only for the undeserving. 
Mercy alone could relieve him from his dread- 
ful guilt ; therefore he pleads for this, for this 
alone. Did he receive it ? Certainly. He 
felt, and therefore he left it on record, " The 
sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit: a broken 
and a contrite heart, God, thou wilt not 
despise." Mercy was accorded to him, and 
therefore he could say, in reference to this as 
well as other portions of his history, as in the 
130th Psalm, " Out of the depths have I cried 
unto thee, Lord. Lord, hear my voice ; let 
thine ears be attentive to the voice of my sup- 



56 MAY I BELIEVE? 

plications. If thou, Lord, shouldst mark in- 
iquities, Lord, who shall stand ? But there 
is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be 
feared." "Let Israel hope in the Lord : for 
with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is 
plenteous redemption." Or as in the 40th 
Psalm: "I waited patiently for the Lord; and 
he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He 
brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out 
of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock 
and established my goings. And he hath put 
a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our 
God : many shall see it, and fear, and shall 
trust in the Lord." Or again as in the 66th 
Psalm: " Come and hear all ye that fear God, 
and I will declare what he hath done for my 
soul. I cried unto him with my mouth, and 
he was extolled with my tongue. If I regard 
iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear 
me ; but verily God hath heard me ; he hath 
attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed 
be God, which hath not turned away my 
prayer, nor his mercy from me." 

"My thoughts are not your thoughts, 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 67 

neither are your ways my ways, saith the 
Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the 
earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, 
and my thoughts than your thoughts.'* Isa. 
Iv. 8, 9. 

Only on the fact thus stated, can we ac- 
count for such wonders of grace as are here 
recorded. Saul the persecutor, David the 
adulterer and murderer, were forgiven ; not 
only forgiven, but admitted to a sacred near- 
ness to God, and made eminently useful to the 
church and the world. Did e'er such grace 
and mercy meet before ? Could men ever 
imagine that even God would reveal such, to 
creatures so guilty as we ? Yet here it is. 
It is God who manifests it, and well may we 
admire and adore. 

" I am the Lord, I change not ; therefore 
ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.'* Mai. 

• • • r* 

m. D. 

Are there other such cases ? Many. Here 
is a remarkable one — one like the last, found 
in the palace of royalty. The story of 
Manasseh, Hezekiah's son, is indeed a sad one. 



58 MAY I BELIEVE? 

Taught from his childhood the knowledge of 
the true God, having the example of a pious 
God-fearing father, and surrounded by forms 
and usages of divine appointment calculated 
to strengthen and sustain upright and noble, 
to say nothing of holy principles and aims, 
and coming too to the throne at an early age, 
it might have been hoped, and doubtless was, 
by the spritually minded of God's people, that 
the good would prevail, and that a pure life 
and a righteous reign would be exhibited by 
the son of so distinguished a ruler as Heze- 
kiah. 

But alas ! holy precept, pious example, 
seemed to be lost, the evil predominated, and 
whether from his mother's influence, or that 
of his counsellors and associates, it soon be- 
came apparent that a father's precepts and 
prayers were to be without present fruit, and 
that the tide of iniquity, idolatry, and sin, re- 
pressed by the father, was about to run to an 
unexampled height under the son. So, too 
painfully proved the result. The work of 
reformation by the father was not only ar- 



I 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 69 

rested, but swept away. So that in the daring 
madness of his impiety he set up an idol in 
the very house of God, and abandoned him- 
self to the cruelest, most revolting, and de- 
graded acts of superstition and idolatry. 
While of his father it is said, '' He trusted in 
the Lord God of Israel ; so that after him was 
none like him of all the kings of Judah, nor 
any that were before him ; 2 Kings xviii. 5 ; 
of Manasseh the indelible record is made, 
''He seduced them [his people] to do more 
evil than did the nations whom the Lord 
destroyed before the children of Israel.'' 2 
Kings xxi. 9. And again : " Moreover Manas- 
seh shed innocent blood very much, till he had 
filled Jerusalem from one end to another ; be- 
side his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, 
in doing that which was evil in the sight of the 
Lord.'' 2 Kings xxi. 16. 

Such is the sad picture of Manasseh's life. 
Did he ever find mercy ? Could even mercy 
stoop to one so vile, so degraded ? Yes, it is 
even so recorded. By and by afflictions came ; 
captivity and deep distress fell upon him. 



60 MAY I BELIEVE ? 

Where then were his idol gods ? Where his 
guilty counsellors and associates ? Could they 
help or hear him ? In vain would he seek to 
them. To whom else could he call? To the 
God of his father ? Him he had forsaken ; 
disobeyed his law; corrupted his worship; dis- 
honoured his name; seduced his people to 
falsehood and idolatry ; and was now suffering 
the tokens of his displeasure ; could he now 
call upon that God ? upon him whose mercy- 
seat he had despised, and whose Holy Place 
he had desecrated with the presence of a 
hideous idol? call upon him, with a life 
loathsome by crime, his hands yet reeking 
with innocent blood ! his conscience now ac- 
cusing him, and arraying not only his open 
but his secret sins before him ! Would it not 
now be the height of presumption, an aggra- 
vation of his sin, even to look towards one 
whom he had so deeply grieved and offended ? 
So, very likely Manasseh may have thought ; 
so, the tempter may have suggested ; it is use- 
less and hopeless to think now, that God will 
hear you; rather, as Job was advised, "curse 



4 



OR THE WARRANT OF PAITH. 61 

him and die;*' so, many think and feel at the 
present day. But memory was possibly now 
busy as well as conscience ; remembrance of 
truth taught to him as well as of evil done 
by him. His father found mercy upon a sick 
bed. The same father doubtless had taught him 
how God had remembered him, had taught him 
how merciful and gracious the divine character 
was, and urged a dependence upon that mercy 
which had been so signally manifested to him- 
self. Perhaps too he may have read and now 
remembered the words of Samuel to the people 
of Israel, "Fear not: ye have done all this 
wickedness : yet turn not aside from following 
the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your 
heart ; and turn ye not aside : for then should 
ye go after vain things, which cannot profit 
nor deliver ; for they are vain. For the Lord 
will not forsake his people for his great name's 
sake." 1 Sam. xii. 20 — 22. It maybe also, 
that divine promise, so adapted to his case, 
may have been recalled to his mind ; " Call 
upon me in the day of trouble : I will deliver 
thee, and thou shalt glorify me.'' Psalm li. 
6 



62 MAY I BELIEVE? 

15. And the Psalmist's experience may 
possibly have been revived in his memory: "I 
cried unto God with my voice, even unto God 
with my voice ; and he gave ear unto me. In 
the day of my trouble I sought the Lord : my 
sore ran in the night and ceased not ; my soul 
refused to be comforted." Psalm Ixxvii. 1, 2. 
Or as in another, " I sought the Lord, and 
he heard me, and delivered me from all my 
fears. This poor man cried, and the Lord 
heard him, and saved him out of all his trou- 
bles.'' Psalm xxxiv. 4, 6. 

Certain it is, however, that though we may 
not be able to trace the history of his convic- 
tions and struggles, yet he was led to prayer, 
and through prayer to the peace of forgiveness 
and acceptance with God. 

It is written of him, " And when he was in 
affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and 
humbled himself greatly before the God of his 
fathers, and prayed unto him : and he was 
entreated of him and heard his supplication, 
and brought him again to Jerusalem, into his ' 



fi 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 63 

kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord 
he was God." 2 Chron. xxxiii. 12, 13. 

If such could be forgiven, who should de- 
spair ? Have you reason longer to doubt, to 
hesitate, and refuse to cast yourself upon the 
mercy of God in Christ ? Press to his feet. 

"Let uot conscience make you linger, 
Nor of fitness fondly dream, 
All the fitness he requireth 
Is to feel your need of him ; 

This he gives you, 
' Tis the Spirit's rising beam.'' 

Unless you can show some enormity in 
your case which no mortal has ever suspected, 
you cannot insist that you are worse than 
Manasseh. Even if you are worse, you have 
no right to limit the mercy of God, and say, that 
he could forgive no one whose sins exceeded 
in turpitude and guilt, those of this man. But 
if your sins simply equal them, then, if these 
were forgiven, yours can be. And while God 
calls you, you have but one thing you can do 
without sin ; that is, to believe at once, to 
accept of Jesus Christ as he is oflfered in 



> • 



64 MAY I BELIEVE? 

the gospel. Christ is offered to you for 
all that you need. Be careful how you 
longer doubt, how you refuse, lest it shall 
be found in the end that you reject the mercy 
of God against your own soul. Rather let me 
urge you to say in deep sincerity, 

" Here Lord, I give myself away, 
'Tis all that I can do." 

*^ On thy kind arms, incarnate God, 
I cast my guilty, helpless soul ; 
I own the justice of thy rod, 

Yet all my sins on thee I roll. ^ 

My God, accept me as I am ; ^ 

For such as I, thy blood was shed ; 
My heart rejoices in thy plan 

To grant me life, who once was dead. 

I can no longer doubt or fear ; 

My heart though vile, to thee I yield, 
Thou'st brought thy great salvation near ; 

Be thou my Righteousness and Shield .'* 

Lest there should be a lingering suspicion, 
let me refer you to that remarkable combina- 
tion of cases found in 1 Cor. vi. 9 — 11. " Be 
not deceived ; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 65 

nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of 
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor 
covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor 
extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of 
God." What a catalogue ! Who could sup- 
pose that any such could be saved ? Surely, 
if any may be thought beyond the reach of 
mercy, sinners of th^ese classes must be ? Can it 
be possible that such material can be wrought 
into the real texture, the substantial elements 
of the church of Christ ? Who would be 
willing to unite with a church composed of 
such people ? Is it not degrading to be asso- 
ciated with persons of such impure, immoral, 
and sinful lives ? And will not Christ be dis- 
honoured and his gospel rejected, if pardon 
and acceptance with God be offered so freely ? 
So, doubtless, the proud and the self-righteous 
may feel and reason : so, doubtless, all who, ig- 
norant of God's righteousness, go about to estab- 
lish their own ; all who have never seen the 
depths of depravity in their own hearts, nor 
felt the helplessness of sin. But so thinks not 
the Holy Spirit, for such he calls ; so thinks 
6* 



66 MAY I BELIEVE ? 

not Christ, for such lie came to seek and to save ; 
so thinks not the Apostle, for as a faithful 
recorder and publisher of the truth, he adds, 
^^And such were some of you!" Some such 
then, can be pardoned and accepted through 
faith in the Divine Redeemer ! Yes, it is true ; 
for it is written, ''But ye are washed, but ye 
are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name 
of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our 
God." 

Could more encouragement be wanted? 
Could more be given ? To which one of these 
classes do you belong ? To any, or none ? If 
literally to none, does your guilt exceed that 
of any ? If not, then from all, if not from 
each one of these examples you may gather 
argument sufficient to warrant you to fall, as 
you are, at the feet of the Redeemer, and take 
him as your all. Will you now do so ? How 
various these cases ; how fearful the guilt ; 
how deep the sinfulness of some of them ! 
Yet they found warrant to believe, why may 
not you ? 

But these are all cases taken from Scrip- 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 67 

ture, are there none others, none more modern, 
nearer our own days ? Plenty ; but can they 
be more appropriate, more fully illustrate the 
great truth, that the word of God affords suffi- 
cient warrant for the chief of sinners to seek 
and expect in the name of Christ, a free and 
absolute remission of all his sins ? The old 
wine is the best. It were useless to refer to 
others on the supposition that these failed to 
make this truth sufficiently clear : yet as addi- 
tional illustration, and to show that the grace 
of God is unchangeable, that his word never 
returns to him void, let us dwell a moment on 
some similar facts developed in the history 
of the church since the days of the apostles. 

Beginning with Augustine, how fully do we 
find the truth we are presenting, sustained ! 
His own confessions exhibit to us a type of 
depravity and a course of sin, which but for 
these we could scarce believe possible. And 
yet these very confessions are the result of a 
change which nothing could have effected but 
this very grace of which we speak. From 
depths and from kinds and courses of sin, 



68 MAY I BELIEVE? 

to you now impossible ; from years of wander- 
ing he was at length brought to sit at the feet 
of Jesus, a most signal instance of a sinner 
saved by grace, a sinner without a plea, with- 
out a possible warrant but that furnished by 
the offer of pardon and acceptance with God 
perfectly gratuitous. This offer he was en- 
abled to accept, and accepting was saved. 
His guilt was forgiven, and the faith he once 
despised, he preached for many long years. 
But if this be still too far off, let me remind 
you of more familiar cases ; of Col. Gardiner, 
a history of whose life you will find in almost 
every Sabbath-school Library — of John Bun- 
yan, who for wickedness was the terror even 
of his companions — of John Newton, whose 
crimes against God and man were of the deep- 
est, darkest character, so overwhelming to 
himself, that to find relief he even meditated 
self-murder ; and if you doubt that such sin- 
ners could be forgiven, read the Pilgrim's 
Progress of Bunyan, or his ''Heart's Ease 
for Heart's Ache,'' or the Jerusalem Sinner 
Saved, or the Cardiphonia of Newton, or the 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 69 

sweet volume of Olney Hymns. In these 
works they spoke and sung of things which 
they themselves had experienced, and the con- 
viction must strike every mind, (1) that they 
regarded themselves as the chief of sinners; 
and yet (2) felt warranted to believe and rest 
with joyful confidence upon the mercy of God 
in Jesus Christ. Hear how Newton sings, in 
praise of the great Physician by whom he was 
relieved. 

How lost was my condition 

'Till Jesus made me whole ! 
There is but one Physician 

Can cure a sin-sick soul. 
Next door to death he found me 

And snatched me from the grave, 
To tell to all around me 

His wondrous power to save. 

From men great skill professing 

I thought a cure to gain ; 
But this proved more distressing, 

And added to my pain. 
Some said that nothing ailed me, 

Some gave me up for lost : 
Thus every refuge failed me, 

And all my hopes were crossed. 



70 MAT I BELIEVE? 

A dying, risen Jesus 

Seen by the eye of faith, 
At once from danger frees us 

And saves the soul from death. 
Then come to this Physician ; 

His help he'll freely give : 
He makes no hard condition, 
Tis only, Look and live. 

Are you in greater extremity, than " next 
door to death?" Newton was there indeed, 
and yet found life and peace in believing; 
why may not you ? 

We desire neither to astonish nor gratify 
by the number and variety of examples ; but 
simply to show, that while one instance, though 
a striking one, and in itself sufficient, might 
yet be regarded as exceptional, rather than as 
indicating the rule ; there are numbers so 
great, that no one not resolved to doubt, could 
indulge the slightest suspicion of difficulty in 
the way of the really sin-sick and sin-burdened 
soul. We say then to you, look at any one of 
these, and so far as example can have force, 
they assure you, that even you, extreme as 
you may really think your own case, even 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 71 

you have warrant now to believe. And if 
any one will give you warrant, then the whole 
will not only do it, but leave you without ex- 
cuse for the delay of a moment. 

Could we call up Wesley and Whitefield, 
Simeon and Legh Richmond, and Henry 
Martyn, and Cecil, and Bickersteth; or Ed- 
wards, or Finley, or Davies, or Payson, and 
hear the testimony they would give on this 
vital question, we should gain nothing as to 
the fact itself. This indeed cannot be more 
fully established ; but its wide-spread uniform- 
ity — a uniformity, universal so far as observa- 
tion has extended, would be deeply impressed 
upon our minds. And the clear establishment 
of this uniformity must be attended with one 
of two results, either to resolve your every 
doubt — to dispel your every fear ; or leave 
you involved in the fearful guilt of unbelief : 
an unbelief maintained where all classes of 
minds have joyfully yielded ; where the refined 
and cultivated, the acute and logical have, 
alike, accepted the truth and rested upon it, 
with the humble and unlearned. A refusal, 



72 MAY I BELIEVE ? 

on your part, under such circumstances, to 
believe can be accounted for only on the 
ground of incapacity to perceive the nature, 
and feel the force of testimony ; or a wilful 
purpose doggedly to resist all argument, and 
all evidence in the premises. 

If such be the case with you, further parley 
would be both unwise and hurtful ; but earn- 
estly hoping that it is not, I beg you carefully 
to ponder one consideration further. 

THE ARGUMENT DIRECT, FROM HOLY SCRIP- 
TURE. 

This argument is contained under various 
forms, and is fully conclusive under each. 

1. Duty. Faith in Christ is commanded; 
and being commanded is a duty. 

" This is my beloved Son ; hear him." 
Luke ix. 35. " A Prophet shall the Lord your 
God raise up unto you of your brethren like 
unto me; him shall ye hear in all things 
whatsoever he shall say unto you." Acts 
iii. 22. 

"And this is his commandment, that we 



* 

I 



^ 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 73 

should believe on the name of his Son Jesus 
Christ." 1 John iii. 23. 

This duty is universal. No one class of 
men is exempt. The command is to preach 
the gospel to every creature. Mark xvi. 15. 
And as faith is the acceptance of the gospel^ 
every creature is required to believe it ; else 
some may reject it without guilt ; but this 
cannot be. He that believeth not is con- 
demned already, because he hath not believed 
in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 
And this is the condemnation, that light is 
come into the world, and men loved darkness 
rather than light, because their deeds were 
evil." John iii. 18, 19. 

The gospel enhances the responsibility of 
men ; and as it is the proclamation of God's 
terms of pardon to the rebellious — of mercy 
to the undeserving ; it is clear that every 
creature refusing to believe refuses to yield 
his rebellion, and rejects the offered mercy, 
thus aggravating his guilt, and braving the 
terrors of the Most High. 

But does God make that a duty, which he 
7 



74 MAY I BELIEVE? 

will not permit to be done ? Does lie com- 
mand, what he will not aid and accept ? Far 
be such conduct from him. The duty involves 
and secures the great privilege. This duty, 
moreover, is irrespective of the number or 
magnitude of the sins committed. 

It has no reference whatever to the question 
whether you have committed many or few, 
great or small sins. You may have committed 
but one, or millions ; still the duty remains un- 
changed. God deals with you as a sinful 
creature. If you have but one sin, he offers 
to you a gratuitous pardon for it in Jesus 
Christ. If you have sins in countless multi- 
tude chargeable upon you, he offers you a 
pardon and acceptance equally gratuitous. 
He commands you equally to believe, and, 
therefore, assures you equally of the privilege. 
Do you deny the duty ? If not, then embrace 
the privilege. And as the duty is imperative 
and pressing, so the privilege is immediate 
and entreating. 

Decide, my friend, and decide quickly. 
Ood says to you, " Go work to-day in my vine- 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 75 

yard." Matt. xxl. 28. "Work to-day/' not 
to-morrow. And what is the work thus re- 
quired at your hand ? Nothing more, nothing 
less, than that which I have already urged 
upon you, even as it is written, " This is the 
work of God, that ye believe on him whom he 
hath sent." John vi. 29. 

2. Invitation combined with promise. 

" Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends 
of the earth ; for I am God, and there is none 
else." Isa. xlv. 22. 

" Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to 
the waters, and he that hath no money ; come 
ye, buy and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and 
milk without money and without price. Incline 
your ear and come unto me ; hear, and your 
soul shall live ; and I will make an everlasting 
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of 
David." Isa. Iv. 1, 3. 

"Come unto me all ye that labour and are 
heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take 
my yoke upon you and learn of me ; for I am 
meek and lowly in heart ; and ye shall find 
rest unto your souls." Matt. xi. 28, 29. 



76 MAT I BELIEVE? 

These are but examples of the nature and 
kind of invitations and promises found through- 
out the Scriptures. We need not enlarge ; 
from these learn all. They include all classes 
of persons; ''all the ends of the earth," 
means every creature; and as though this 
were not enough, they specify the thirsty, the 
hungry, the poor, the thoughtless, the blind, 
the deaf, the weary, the heavy laden, the 
tempted ; and as though even this were not 
enough, the words of inspiration almost close, 
uttering the unlimited invitation, ''Whosoever 
will, let him take of the water of life freely." 
Rev. xxii. 17. 

Clearer warrant none need desire, — none can 
have, than God's invitation, and God's promise. 
He against whom you have sinned — he has 
provided a Saviour, and invites you to partake 
of a gratuitous pardon simply by accepting 
the mediation of this divinely appointed Sav- 
iour. He invites with a full knowledge of 
your sins — their number, their aggravations, 
and their desert of hell ; and can you desire 
other warrant ? 



i 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 77 

3. Exhortation combined witli entreaty and 
expostulation. 

''Wherefore do ye spend money for that 
which is not bread? And your labour for 
that which satisfieth not ? Hearken diligently 
unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and 
let your soul delight itself in fatness.'' Isa. 
Iv. 2. 

" Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, 
call ye upon him while he is near. Let the 
wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous 
man his thoughts : and let him return unto the 
Lord, and he will have mercy upon him ; and 
to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." 
Isa. Iv. 6, 7. 

''Have I any pleasure at all, that the 
wicked should die ? saith the Lord God : and not 
that he should return from his ways and live ? 
Cast away from you all your transgressions, 
whereby ye have transgressed : and make 
you a new heart and a new spirit : for why 
will ye die, house of Israel ? For I have 
no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, 



\ 



78 MAY I BELIEVE ? 

saith the Lord God : wherefore turn your- 
selves, and live ye." Ezek. xviii. 23, 31, 32. 

'' Say unto them. As I live, saith the Lord 
God, I have no pleasure in the death of the 
wicked : but that the wicked turn from his way 
and live : turn ye, turn ye from your evil 
ways ; for why will ye die, house of Israel?" 
Ezek. xxxiii. 11. 

" Come now and let us reason together, saith 
the Lord : though your sins be as scarlet they 
shall be white as snow ; though they be red 
like crimson they shall be as wool." Isa. 
i. 18. 

" How shall I give thee up, Ephraim ? how 
shall I deliver thee, Israel ? how shall I make 
thee as Admah ? how shall 1 set thee as 
Zeboim? Mine heart is turned within me, 
my repentings are kindled together." Hosea 
xi. 8. 

What mean all these and other Scriptures 
of the same character, if they do not fully 
warrant the unconditional acceptance of the 
gospel offer? If they do not, not only au- 
thorize every sinner to whom they come to 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 79 

believe God's mercy, but regard bim as re- 
jecting tbat mercy witbout cause if be do not 
believe ? If tbere be force in language, it 
must be so. What interest, what motive, 
would Grod have for addressing men thus, if 
they were not welcome to come ? 

Among men to stand proof against such 
exhortation, such expostulatory entreaty, is to 
incur a charge of hardened insensibility or 
perverse obstinacy, which leaves an indelible 
stain upon the character ; but can any one 
treat God in this manner without incurring a 
charge of deeper, blacker guilt ? God invites, 
then exhorts, then with earnest entreaty ex- 
postulates ; and will you yet say. He means 
not me ; I have no interest in all that he 
promises, and am not the object of any expos- 
tulation on his part? When your very case 
is described, and your very class is desig- 
nated, still you say. All this is not for me. 

Take care that you make not this the truth 
in reference to yourself. The privilege offered 
to you, and which you put from you, has an 
awful responsibility connected with it. " Be- 



80 MAY I BELIEVE? 

cause I have called/' says Grod, "and ye re- 
fused; I have stretched out my hand, and no 
man regarded ; but ye have set at nought my 
counsel, and would none of my reproof; I also 
will laugh at your calamity : I will mock when 
your fear cometh ; when your fear cometh as 
desolation, and your destruction cometh as a 
whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh 
upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but 
I will not answer ; they shall seek me early 
but they shall not find me. Prov. i. 24 — 28. 
You may bring about this issue, fearful as it 
is. Be entreated in time. While the exhor- 
tation is addressed to you, yield to its gra- 
cious influence, and cast yourself upon the out- 
stretched arms of a waiting Saviour. 

But this warrant arises again in another 
form. 

4. As a fruit, or object, of the mission of 
Christ and its publication in the gospel. With- 
out this mission, this incarnation, death, and 
resurrection of the Lord Jesus, such warrant 
could never have been accorded to any sinner ; 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 81 

not only not to the greatest and vilest, but 
not to the smallest or purest. 

Sin alienates between God and man. Its 
guilt must be atoned, its offence removed, or 
reconciliation never can be possible. But 
man can atone for the guilt of sin, only by 
suffering its penalty ; this would involve end- 
less punishment, and of course exclude all 
prospect of happiness and peace. The only 
relief therefore can come through another ; 
and hence pardon is extended to the sinner, 
not for any thing he has done, but for what 
has been done for him. 

Hence we have the record, " For God sent 
not his Son into the world to condemn the 
world, but that the world through him might 
be saved." John iii. 17. How are men saved 
through him? ^' He that believeth shall be 
saved." Mark xvi. 16. "He that believeth 
on the Son hath everlasting life." John iii. 

36. "Even so must the Son of man be 

lifted up, that w^hosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." 
John iii. 14, 15. 



82 MAY I BELIEVE? 

Faith in Christ is the means of salvation. 
For Christ therefore to die that the world 
through him might be saved, is to die neces- 
sarily that faith might be exercised, and of 
course that a warrant for faith might exist. 

That this reasoning is correct we are assured 
by the testimony of this same Evangelist, who 
declares that he wrote his gospel for the very 
purpose of ajBTording a warrant, an opportunity 
or ground of faith. " And he knoweth that he 
saith true that ye might believe.'' John xix. 
35. "But these are written, that ye might 
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of 
God ; and that believing ye might have life 
through his name." John xx. 31. The same 
thing is also clearly asserted by the apostle 
Peter : " Who verily was fore-ordained before 
the foundation of the world, but was manifest 
in these last times for you, who by him do be- 
lieve in God that raised him up from the 
dead and gave him glory; that your faith 
and hope might he in God." 1 Pet. i. 20, 21. 

We think it just, then, and therefore safe 
to say, that the very object for which Christ 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 83 

came, for which lie died, for which God raised 
him from the dead, was that this warrant 
might exist, this great privilege be accorded 
to men. 

And now, what say you ? If the very exis- 
tence of the gospel is a witness that you, what- 
ever your condition as a sinner, have ample 
warrant to go to Christ that you may be saved, 
will you go ? If the whole Scripture record 
is intended to assure you of God's willingness 
to receive the very chief of sinners for Christ's 
sake, then by what right do you hesitate to 
believe it ? By what right do you put any 
judgment or opinion of your own between 
your soul and Jesus Christ ? God says, 
Come : you say, I dare not. God replies with 
emphasis, But you may. You still rejoin. Nay, 
I may not. What means this ? Can you 
justify it ? Who knows best what God will 
permit you to do ? He himself, or you ? De- 
lay no more ; but fall at his feet, confess your 
unbelief, and accept with joy his great salva- 
tion. 

Other arguments we will not now ofier. 



84 MAY I BELIEVE ? 

Enough has been presented to establish this 
truth, viz : that if you believe not, and there- 
fore perish, it will not be because God has 
given no warrant to believe. On the con- 
trary, you remain in unbelief in despite of all 
that can authorize you to seek and find eternal 
life now, in Jesus Christ. 

A RECAPITULATION. 

Let us see what has been ascertained in the 
premises. 

To meet every such case as yours in the 
fullest possible manner, we have shown that a 
warrant for your faith may be clearly and 
fully established on the ground that it is the 
duty of all men to believe ; then by an induc- 
tion of examples, both from Scriptural and 
modern times, have seen that men of all classes, 
and some even of the very vilest have been 
admitted to faith ; have been accepted in their 
acceptance of Jesus Christ, and incidentally 
have shown the nature and force of this testi- 
mony ; and that to evade it, every exceptional 
case must be recited, not merely inferred. 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 85 

This is a wide field, and eacli example 
might well be made a separate study. Sin 
assumes so many forms, and afflicts the soul 
with so many evils, evils deeply seated and 
obstinate, that it becomes important to consider 
and exhibit the cures in the worst of cases. 

" The worst of all diseases 

Is light, compared with sin ; 
On every part it seizes, 

But rages most within. 
Tis palsy, plague, and fever, 

And madness — all combined ; 
And none but a believer, 
The least relief can find.'* 

We have, therefore, purposely made a large 
induction, hoping that thus every case may be 
met. 

In addition to all this, we have seen that 
the Scriptures directly warrant this acceptance 
of Christ, by urging it as a duty — a duty irre- 
spective of the extent of a man's guilt : by 
invitations and promises, and these often, not 
general, but specific ; by earnest expostulatory 
entreaty, and finally, by assuring us that the 
8 



86 MAY I BELIEVE? 

very design of the death and resurrection of 
Christ, together with its record or publication 
by the sacred writers was, that this warrant 
might also be proclaimed wherever sinners are 
found. The gospel would be no gospel, but 
for this great and glorious truth — this, which 
gives it adaptedness and force wherever pro- 
claimed, in America or Europe, in Africa or 
Asia, in Australia or Micronesia. 

The gospel is proclaimed to all, because God 
is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, 
not imputing their trespasses unto them; 
and requires — warrants all who hear it to be- 
^ lieve, ''obey, and take the promised'' bless- 
ing. 

WHAT YET REMAINS ? 

If by so many routes we have arrived at 
the same terminus, may we not conclude that 
this is indeed the great central spot to which 
all things tend ? That everything conspires 
to convince the sinner that he, even in his 
deepest degradation, in the deepest conscious- 
ness of his guilt, may go, — has a warrant to 



OR THE WARRANT OP FAITH. 87 

go to Him, who is " able to save them to the 
uttermost that come unto God by him ?" Heb. 
vii. 25. 

Does anything therefore yet remain ? 
Nothing necessarily ; but still there are some 
minds so sensitive, some difficulties so unyield- 
ing ; some temptations so subtle and persist- 
ent, that calm unbroken rest cannot be main- 
tained. There is a conflict between hope and 
fear ; joy and sorrow follow each other, some- 
times in lengthened intervals, sometimes in 
rapid succession. 

In the struggles of life, new positions are 
assumed, new duties arise, new questions 
emerge. New sins also may be committed — 
old sins may be revived ; old corruptions work 
in new channels ; old evidences, experiences, 
and comforts, grow dim in the memory, or are 
thrown into unfavourable positions to be seen 
in their true character. Hence the conscience 
is often startled, and the heart overwhelmed 
by the sudden and vivid suggestion, " You are 
too late ; there is no hope;'' or, "• You are yet 



88 MAY I BELIEVE? 

a sinner, a hypocrite, and unworthy of any 
place in the service of Christ." 

Such suggestions, as by the power of a fear- 
ful hallucination, absorb the attention of the 
mind, and preclude the discovery of the error 
which is now oppressing it, prevent the detec- 
tion of the subtle temptation under which it 
labours, and by which its peace has been de- 
stroyed. 

Dark struggles follow ; long depression of 
mind ensues, activity ceases, hopes are aban- 
doned, and despair sits brooding upon the 
heart. Is all lost ? Not yet. May there be 
hope ? Yes, abundant. Where, whence ? In 
the sinner ? No. In man ? Not the least. 
Then whence ? Christ still lives. The war- 
rant to fly to him yet continues in full force, 
and his power to save remains unbroken. " He 
is the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever.'* 
Heb. xiii. 8. 

THE SUFFICIENCY OF THIS WARRANT. 

Is this warrant sufficient to meet such var- 
iety and combination of new cases ? Is not 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 89 

sometliing else necessary ? or may not some- 
thing be united with it to advantage ? It is 
all that is requisite. Alone, it is omnipotent. 
Combined with anything else, it is weakened 
and destroyed. 

Let us look for a moment at this warrant. 
What is it ? It is God's command, to repent 
and believe the gospel — his invitation to ac- 
cept of Christ as the only Mediator between 
God and men — his offer to accept and save 
every sinner coming to him, on the foundation 
of Christ's work and satisfaction to the Divine 
law. 

It is, in short, a proclamation of pardon on 
God's part, to guilty rebels against his govern- 
ment. It announces distinctly that sin can be 
forgiven, that rebellion can be pardoned in 
the case of every one accepting Jesus Christ 
as his Surety before God. 

Here then the question returns. Is this suffi- 
cient ? Is this all that the sinner, any sinner, 
needs to authorize him at once to accept of Christ 
as his full salvation ? There can be but one 

answer. It is not only all that he needs, but 

8* 



90 MAY I BELIEVE? 

the only thing which can confer any warrant 
whatever. That this may appear, consider — 

1. God alone has a right to command or in- 
vite any one to return to him. He alone has 
the right to say on what terms, in what way 
he will accept the sinful and rebellious. No 
creature, however exalted, can on his own mo- 
tion, give warrant or encouragement to any 
sinner to hope for pardon and acceptance 
with God. 

But if God himself does it, then all who 
hear it may comply, the first moment they 
comprehend either the command or invitation. 
Nay, they must comply, or prefer to remain 
in sin and rebellion. 

The child who rejects a father's authority, 
and spends years in multiplied acts of hostihty 
and insult to that father, needs no other — can 
have no other warrant to return and expect 
forgiveness than the father's own command or 
invitation. If the father command, he may 
instantly obey ; if he invite, he may instantly 
accept, and at once partake of all the benefits 
resulting from such return. No authority but 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 91 

the father's could warrant it ; but if this be 
given, all is given that can be required. 

So with God's command addressed to you, 
sinner, to repent ; you need no other warrant. 
Nay, you must obey, or add fresh rebellion 
to the fearful catalogue of your crimes. If 
God invites, you have such warrant, that to 
doubt or question it becomes at once an in- 
creased and aggravated offence. If Gabriel 
invited, you might hesitate, and ask for his 
authority ; but when God himself commands 
and invites, nothing is left but to comply. 
What could strengthen such a warrant ? Can 
anything be added to God's authority ? Is 
not his word final ? 

As the Supreme Judge, no one but himself 
can know or declare whether he will remit the 
penalty of his law in favour of any trans- 
gressor, and if he will, on what terms, and to 
whom ? But when he himself declares his 
own arrangement so to do, and invites the 
guilty to come and partake of his clemency, 
then his word becomes all that can be required 
in any possible condition. 



92 MAY I BELIEVE? 

Rest then in this ; you will find it sufiicient 
for every exigence through which you may be 
called to pass. 

2. But consider again, that in the nature 
of things, nothing can be substituted for, or 
added to this warrant ; and, therefore, it must 
stand in itself sufficient and alone. 

The warrant is God's word of command, of 
invitation, of promise and entreaty addressed 
to the sinner to turn and live. 

Who can substitute anything for this ? 
God has given the warrant. Who can come 
in and set this aside, and establish something 
in its stead? Can angels — can men — can 
any creature, or any number of creatures ? 
Would it be safe to follow such ? 

Who can add anything ? If there be no 
authority to substitute, can there be to add 
new provisions ? Who will venture upon such 
a scheme ? 

The thing is in itself impossible; and if 
there can be neither substitute nor addition, 
then this warrant stands for every sinner in 
every condition sufficient and alone. 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 93 

But here many questions arise which often 
cause great perplexity to the sinner, and under 
the influence of which he is often led practi- 
cally to attempt what reason and truth declare 
he cannot do. ^ 

PERPLEXING QUESTIONS. 

1. Do not the Scriptures require repentance, 
before God can or will show me any marks of 
favour or mercy ? Must I not be a great deal 
better before I can expect that Christ will look 
upon and receive me ? 

• I have not lived as I ought, and must pre- 
pare myself by prayer and reading the Scrip- 
tures and doing better in every way before I 
can be ready to accept God's invitation ; before 
I can feel that I am permitted so to do. Must 
I not? 

Here are as many mistakes, or at least mis- 
apprehensions, as questions. 

True : God requires sinners to repent ; and 
without repentance he will not receive any one 
to his favour ; but is not the acceptance of 
God's invitation, the resting of your soul for 



94 • MAY I BELIEVE ? 

pardon upon God's promise, the very repent- 
ance you need ? Is it not that which he re- 
quires ? You have hitherto refused to do this ; 
and what could more distinctly manifest a re- 
pentance for your past course of life, than a 
turning to God upon his own invitation, upon 
the warrant of his own promise, and a hearty 
acceptance of the finished righteousness of 
Christ as the only ground of your hope ? 
And would not this be at once doing a great 
deal better, than you have ever done ? You 
have not, indeed, lived as you ought, but 
would not this be the highest act of right and 
duty to God which you could do? What 
ought you to^o better than to turn from your 
sinful ways, and accept God's free promise of 
a free and absolute pardon in the name and 
for the sake of Christ ? 

The truth is, you are overlooking the ground 
upon which God proposes to save you, and 
substituting a condition of your own which he 
neither requires nor sanctions, upon which to 
be accepted before him. 

He proposes to pardon you absolutely on 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 95 

the ground of Christ's merit. And accord- 
ingly invites you to come and accept without 
money and without price. 
; This you overlook, indeed practically deny ; 
and attempt to acquire, by your repentance, 
your doing better, something to make you ac- 
ceptable to Christ, something to recommend 
you to him. 

Thus you turn from God's foundation to lay 
one for yourself, substituting your own for his. 
He says, Come as you are, upon Christ's 
merits. You say, "I must repent and do 
better, first, and then expect God to receive 
me." 

He proposes, let me repeat, to accept and 
save you wholly for the merits of the Lord 
Jesus, and invites you to partake of pardon 
and peace, on this foundation only : you refuse 
and delay until you can add something of 
your own, in the way of repentance, doing 
better, and such like. 

This is, on your part, a change of the whole 
ground of salvation. It is another gospel. 
God's provision is for the ungodly ; yours is 



96 MAY I BELIEVE? 

for the sinner partly reformed, doing better, 
and not so bad as before. God's plan regards 
Christ's merits, only and alone, as sufficient to 
procure eternal salvation ; yours rejects Christ's 
merits as insufficient, unless supplemented 
by some improvement, reformation, or good- 
ness of your own. After securing something 
of your own to add to Christ's, you can then 
feel that God is ready to accept you. 

My friend, you will find nothing but delu- 
sion in this direction. You are on another 
foundation, and can never attain real perma- 
nent peace with God. Christ is our peace ; 
not something of our own in addition to his 
righteousness. 

If you make yourself better, as shown in a 
former Tract, {" Only believe,") you put your- 
self out of the range of gospel promises and 
of course must perish. 

But after all, what is a sinner to do, who 
feels his guilt and unworthiness to be so ex- 
ceeding great, as utterly to disqualify him for 
an entrance into God's presence ? 

Oppressed with such a perception of his con- 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 9T 

dition, what is he to do ? Do ? Nothing, but 
to take God at his own word. When he knows 
your whole condition, and notwithstanding^ 
says, '' Come unto me, I have made the amplest 
provision for your acceptance, peace, and 
safety;" what ought you to do, but with his 
word of promise in your ear and heart, cast 
yourself upon his loving arms of mercy and 
salvation ? 

Can compassion, can love like this, be met 
in any other manner ? Do as the prodigal 
did, when, all conscious of his vileness, he not 
only resolved to return to his Father's house; 
but actually did so in his very rags, with all 
the marks of his degradation and WTetchedness 
about him. " I am not worthy to be called 
thy son," says he. Yet he delayed not, re- 
fused not to accept the best robe, the shoes 
on his feet and the ring on his finger, until he 
could remove his own rags and filth. The 
father saw him, accepted, and embraced him 
as he was. The deepest gratitude and the 
strongest emotions of true penitence alike 
forbade delay for any purpose. Unworthy as 



"98 MAY I BELIEVE? 

•■ 

he felt himself, he could but yield, and yield- 
ing secured all that the father's heart prompted 
him to give. 

Thus you must do. Anything else is to 
resist the grace of God ; to make your own 
judgment of your condition not only the rule 
of your conduct towards God, but the mea- 
sure of his gifts and graces to you. 

You certainly have no right to put your 
unworthiness, though you saw and felt it a thou- 
sand times more deeply than you do, between 
the fountain of God's mercy and your soul's 
salvation. The merits of a Saviour's blood, 
not your own deserts, constitute God's measure 
of grace : resist then no longer. 

^* Ho ! ye needy, come and welcome ; 
God's free bounty glorify.'^ 

^* Pore upon your sins no longer, 
Well I know their mighty guilt ; 
But my love than death is stronger, 

I my blood have freely spilt ; 
Though your heart has long been hardened, 
Look on me, it soft shall grow ; 
- Past transgressions shall be pardoned, 
And I'll wash you white as snow." 



OR THE WARRANT OF PAITH. 99 

Thus Jesus calls you ; let your reply be 
in the appropriate sentiment, if not the lan- 
guage of another, of Newton's hymns, 

"Lord, thou hast won ; at length I yield ; 
My he^rt, by mighty grace compelled, 

Surrenders all to thee : 
Against thy terrors long I strove, 
But who can stand against thy love ? 

Love con quel's even me." 

The warrant is all sujfficient, and an imme- 
diate acceptance of it will be and is the best 
possible evidence of gratitude to God, of re- 
pentance for sin, and a fixed purpose of new 
obedience. 

Delay will but multiply your difficulties, 
and endanger your acceptance at any other 
time. Be wise, therefore, in season and 
turn, as the poor prodigal, even now, to your 
Father's outstretched arms. 

2. But is it not presumptuous for one so guilty, 
and so long, as well as so recently in the slime 
and filth of sin, to expect an immediate ac- 
ceptance with God, and an unconditional par- 
don of all my guilt ? 



100 MAY I BELIEVE? 

Does not such a doctrine offer a premium 
for sin, and expose the gospel to reproach 
before the world ? 

Why, or how presumptuous ? Does not 
God invite ? And when we answer the exact 
condition of those to whom the invitation is 
extended, can there be presumption in accept- 
ing it ? If the vile are invited, the blind, the 
deaf, the lost, may not each one in this condi- 
tion embrace the opportunity of relief ? And if 
the invitation specifies the time, as now, the 
present, passing moment, may not the vile 
wash and be clean at once ? 

Was it presumptuous for the poor leper who 
said to Christ, " If thou wilt, thou canst make 
me clean," to accept and rejoice in the imme- 
diate cure which the Saviour extended, when 
he replied, '^I will, be thou clean?" Matt, 
viii. 2. 

Was it presumptuous for the weeping peni- 
tent at the Saviour's feet to accept the gracious 
pardon he granted when he said, " Thy sins 
are forgiven ; thy faith hath saved thee ; go in 
peace?" Luke xviii. 48 — 50. Or the poor 



I 



/ 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 101 

paralytic on whom lie bestowed botli cure and 
pardon in the same moment ? Matt. ix. 1 — 7. 

Can it ever be presumptuous to obey Grod ? 
So far from it, that to disobey, or for any rea- 
son or judgment of your own even to delay, 
becomes an act both offensive to God, and 
daringly presumptuous in his sight. He spe- 
cifies the duty or privilege, the time in which 
he desires attention to it, and the character 
of all from whom he expects compliance ; and 
these very persons pause and say, " Oh no, 
we cannot do it now, it would be presumption !" 
Presumption to do what you are commanded — 
to accept what is unconditionally offered to 
you ! What madness thus to act ! The pre- 
sumption is on the side of delay or neglect. 
If the fact that you have long been a sinner, 
that your guilt is unspeakably great, hinders 
not the command or the invitation ; then it 
cannot originate or sustain a charge of pre- 
sumption against you, in obeying the one or 
accepting the other. 

Nor can it offer any premium to sin to ex- 
tend a free and immediate pardon to the trans- 
9^ 



II 



m 



102 MAY I BELIEVE ? 

gressor. In the nature of things, there can 
be no middle ground between a free pardon, 
and an endurance of the penalty of sin. Par- 
don or atonement ! If atonement be made by 
the transgressor, he is not pardoned ; he claims 
release as a matter of right. Pardon has 
being and place, only where the culprit deserves 
the threatened penalty, and cannot offer an 
atonement. If he suffers the penalty, he is 
not pardoned. 

If pardon were extended without atonement 
in any form, and especially if it were done on 
a system, and as a matter of course, then it 
might afford encouragement or offer a premium 
to sin. But is this the case under the gospel ? 
The sinner makes none we admit, but is none 
made? 

Does the free and immediate pardon offered 
to the chief of sinners have no reference to an 
atonement, made by him or for him ? All 
know that the very foundation of the gospel is 
the atoning work of Christ, and that upon 
this, and this alone, the pardon and remission 
of sin is extended to the guilty. The pardon 






OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 103 

of which the sinner is invited to partake, is 
for Christ's sake, not his ; free to him, not 
because God is indifferent to sin, or disposed 
in the least to let it pass unpunished, but be- 
cause Christ has purchased redemption by his 
own life's blood. 

Instead of yielding encouragement to sin, 
it is the deepest condemnation of it, and affords 
the strongest and only available motives to 
abandon its love and practice. 

Christ suffered to the extreme demand of 
the law, that satisfaction might be entered up 
for the sinner. It is so entered for every 
sinner accepting of Christ. His suffering is 
substituted for the sinner's ; and while the sin- 
ner is, and can be freely pardoned, it is only 
because he receives and relies upon Christ as 
his surety. No sin is pardoned except through 
Christ, no sinner accepted but " in the Beloved." 
Christ grants his purchased pardon without 
cost to every soul, however unworthy, accept- 
ing of his invitation. 

Who could feel encouraged to sin because 
freely pardoned, when he sees and feels that 



104 



MAY I BELIEVE ( 



that free pardon Is the purchase of one who 
loved him to the death, and suffered in his 
stead ? 

What more surely awakens hatred to sin, 
and enkindles a burning zeal against it, than 
an apprehension of pardon secured only by the 
life's blood of the dearest and noblest friend 
in the universe ? 



*' But mercy has my heart subdued, 
A bleeding Saviour I have viewed, 

And now I hate my sin." ^ 

*' Oh ! how I hate those lusts of mine. 

That crucified my God : 
Those sins that pierced and nailed his flesh 

Fast to the fatal wood. 
Yes, my Redeemer, they shall die, 

My heart has so decreed ; 
Nor will I spare the guilty things, 

That made my Saviour bleed." 

It is an old slander against the gospel that 
if men are justified freely, that if they are 
taken up from the very defilement of sin, and 
accepted without goodness of their own, they 
are thereby encouraged in sin, that they need 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 105 

make no eiOfort to acquire personal purity. A 
legal spirit, a self-seeking and self-righteous 
spirit suggests, sustains, aud spreads this slan- 
der. 

Those however who believe and act upon it, 
reject the gospel ; and while they send the 
sinner to good works, to religious duties, to 
doing better, as a preparation to accept of 
Christ, or as means to be acceptable to him, they 
send him from peace, and subject him to the 
cruel bondao-e of an accusing; conscience, or 
expose him to the hopeless delusion of a heart- 
less formality. He asks for bread and they 
give him a stone — nay, a serpent. 

A gracious, undeserved pardon cannot but 
meet the sinner in all his guilt and defilement ; 
a relief from punishment by reason of per- 
sonal merit is not pardon. Nor can a pardon 
which is extended on the ground of personal 
merit, if such be called pardon, tend in the 
least to restrain or repress sin — to produce 
real sorrow for sin and hatred of it. The 
feeling in such case is, ''I can easily work out 
merit enough to secure a pardon!" And 



106 MAY I BELIEVE ? 

when pardoned in this sense, the inward 
thought will be, '^ I know I have committed 
great sins, but what of that ? I can make 
amends by good works, and good wishes, and 
thus obtain pardon." 

This is the system therefore which offers a 
premium for sin, and not the gracious and 
only real pardon of the gospel. The idea 
that Grod would offer pardon on a basis which 
would encourage sin is not only preposterous, 
but blasphemous. To put away sin, he gave 
his own Son as an expiatory sacrifice ; and 
upon the basis of this sacrifice, he proposes 
freely to pardon sinners as the only means of 
delivering them from the love and power of 
sin ; and yet there are found some who, both 
in theory and practice, evade the truth, 'per- 
plex the mind, and harass the awakened con- 
science with the idea that to expect, even when 
God expressly offers it, a free and immediate 
pardon of all sin is to act upon a principle 
which will encourage sin ! Encourage sin by 
the very method which infinite wisdom and 
goodness devised to suppress and destroy it ! 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 107 

Was there ever sucli blindness of mind, or 
such hatred of the truth ? 

Listen not to such a suggestion. It comes 
from the pit : and will lead you there, if you 
follow it. 

You never can be safer than when resting 
upon the word of the Lord : ''I, even I, am 
he, that blotteth out thy transgressions for 
mine own sake, and will not remember thy 
sin." Isa. xliii. 25. 

You are never safe without this word. 
Accept his invitation at once. With this 
warrant you will stand scatheless at the judg- 
ment-seat, without it you must perish. ^ 

Equally futile is the objection, that such a 
method of pardon will expose the gospel to 
reproach before the world. 

The reputation of the gospel is something 
very carefully to be guarded and it is plea- 
sant to find any one really anxious about it. 

But yet none can be more alive to it than 
God himself, and we may rest assured that no 
judgment or care of ours can either supersede 
his, or supply any supposed deficiencies, any 



108 MAY I BELIEVE? 

thing not precisely suited to the company or 
the times. Let us remember too that our 
judgment and God's may be so widely differ- 
ent, that that which we might suppose to be a 
reproach, may be in reality an honour and glory. 
The cross has never been esteemed an honour by 
the world ; and yet the highest honour men can 
attain for time or eternity comes only through 
the cross. " No cross, no crown." The same 
principle may prevail here. What is there in 
this method of saving men that can authorize 
reproach ? 

Is it that salvation from beginning to end is 
a free gift of God to men ? To whom can it 
be a reproach ? To God ? Is it an unworthy 
thing for him to give, to give without money, 
without price ? Is it not his glory ? Suppose 
he granted the blessings secured in the gospel 
only to the highest bidder. What would then 
become of the poor, the naked, the starving, 
the helpless ? Suppose he pardoned only 
those who pay largely for it. What would 
then become of the destitute and ruined? 
Who but the rich, the influential, could then 



OR THE WAERANT OF FAITH. 109 

be saved? Would not this be a reproach? 
But now when he makes no difference, when 
the richest and highest on earth can be saved 
only on the same basis with the poorest and 
most degraded ; when salvation is a free gift 
alike to all in Christ ; is it in any sense a re- 
proach ? When each is alike undeserving, 
and when neither can in reality pay even one 
farthing ; is it a reproach to God that he be- 
stows freely all the blessings which infinite 
love can devise ? 

But is it a reproach to men — to sinners? 
On what ground? To be objects of unde- 
served favour, recipients of infinite bounty ? 
It may be a reproach to them that they are 
sinners — sinners without cause, and against 
all reason and right. It may justly be a re- 
proach that they are vile and ungrateful ; but 
can it be that they are freely forgiven, saved 
from hell, adopted into God's family, made 
heirs of heaven, holy and happy for ever ; can 
this be a reproach even to the poor sinner ? 
From the depths of vileness and guilt to be 
raised to purity and honour ; from misery to 
10 



110 MAY I BELIEVE? 

happiness unalloyed and unending ; from the 
depths of poverty and want to exhaustless af- 
fluence, to boundless fulness ; from being a 
homeless wanderer, an outcast, a companion 
of the wretched, degraded, lost, to be sought 
out by Him from whom he departed, against 
whom he sinned, whose name he blasphemed, 
whose honour he despised, whose cause he be- 
trayed; brought back, restored to home, to 
the favour of God, to the society of the blest, 
and eternal life and peace in heaven ; is this a 
reproach or an honour ? And yet this is that 
which God gives you a warrant to expect in 
the promise of a free acceptance for Christ's 
sake. 

The world is a lazar house of sin, corrup- 
tion, and death; the church is the hospital 
where the only cure can be effected ; the grace 
of God the only medicated balm ; the Lord 
Jesus the only Physician ; every prescription, 
and all attention by the great Physician, are 
free. '' To the poor the gospel is preached." 

Both these objections come w^ith an ill grace 
from those who make them ; and the best ar- 



h 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. Ill 

gument after all, against them, is found in the 
actual developments in the lives of men. 

Who feel less at liberty to sin ? Who feel 
the necessity, and strive most for the attain- 
ment of universal purity and holiness — the 
pardoned or the careless sinner ? The sinner 
who thinks he is not wholly depraved, has 
some good in him, and can repent at pleasure, 
or the poor, broken-hearted penitent who 
casts, himself wholly upon the mercy of God in 
Christ, who gratefully and joyfully accepts 
God's offer of an immediate and gracious par- 
don on the ground only of a Saviour's merits? 

Look at the history of men before and 
after conversion. Look at the aim, the earn- 
est, honest labour of the church, and the 
world. With whom do you find most fear and 
hatred of sin ? And whose moral virtues have 
reflected most honour upon the race ? Whose 
benevolence, philanthropy, patient endurance, 
and unyielding energies, have done most to 
elevate man, to glorify God, to dry the mourn- 
er's tears, to illume the gloom of sorrow*s 



112 MAY I BELIEVE? 

night, and convert the wilderness into a fruit- 
ful field ? 

The friends of this great doctrine are 
willing that the severest scrutiny may be ex- 
ercised; confident that salvation by grace, 
sovereign and free, must for ever claim the 
adoring admiration of angels, and demand 
from men everlasting songs of joy and praise. 

*' Grace ! 'tis a cbarraiDg sound, 
Harmonious to the ear, 
Heaven with the echo shall resound, 
And all the earth shall hear/' 

It is characteristic of sinners to glory in 
their shame ; but that which constitutes their 
highest praise, and promotes their purest and 
most permanent happiness, they regard with 
distrust and often wholly reject. Thus it is 
here. Invited to partake of a gratuitous par- 
don, and assured of the unchanging sympathy, 
compassion, and love of God in Christ, they 
nevertheless decline to accept, or delay, on the 
assumed but futile plea, that it may encour- 
age sin, or become the object of reproach to 
the world. 



• OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 113 

It is God's plan, and while it brings glory 
to him, it confers the highest honour and 
greatest safety on man. Accept it then with- 
out farther hesitation, and esteem it your high- 
est privilege to sit at the feet of Jesus, and 
own yourself " a captive in the chains of love/' 

8. But I am not sure that I am one of the 
elect, and therefore I am not invited, and 
would be repulsed should I attempt to enrol 
myself among God's people, or expect to be 
accepted of him. 

This is a frequent objection, and one often- 
times greatly perplexing ; but without the 
shadow of a reason. 

You have far more evidence that you are 
elected than that you are not. How does God 
usually deal with those who are his elect ? 
Does he give them the gospel and afford them 
some, at least, of the ordinary means of grace ? 
Does he send such providences as tend to make 
these means impressive and effectu.al? Does 
he add to all these an awakened, troubled con- 
science, through the presence of the Divine 

Spirit applying the word and convincing of 
10* 



114 MAY I BELIEVE ? 

" sin, of righteousness, and judgment to come ?" 
Does he thus so move upon their hearts as to 
make sin odious and fearful to them, to impress 
them with their desert of hell, and arouse them 
to duties and efforts to escape this fearful doom, 
and secure a place in heaven ? Does he give 
them to see the vanity of earth, and awaken 
within them earnest desires and longings for 
heavenly things ? Does he in short, by ways 
of his own choosing, bring them to feel that 
they must have an interest in Christ or perish ? 
Does he arrange it so, that Christ in all his 
fulness as Prophet, Priest, and King, is offered 
to them freely, and pressed upon their accept- 
ance ? 

If each and all these questions can be but 
answered in the alErmative ; and if any one so 
dealt with, may be regarded as hopefully 
among the number of God's chosen ones, 
wanting only the actual acceptance of Christ 
to confirm the truth of his election ; then what 
is the difference between one in such circum- 
stances and your own case ? If he may feel 
encouraged, why may not you ? If he may 



i 
I 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 



115 



rest upon God's warrant so freely and fully 
extended, why may not you? And if he 
would be without excuse for delay even, in 
what condition are you ? Has not God dealt 
with you in a manner precisely similar ? And 
do you not now feel that unless you fly to 
Christ, hell must be your doom ? 

Yes ; but how can I, '^unless I am sure that I 
am one of the elect?" How can you be sure, 
that you are within a house, except by going into 
it? How can you be sure of being an actual 
guest of a friend, except by accepting and com- 
plying with the invitation ? How can you be 
sure that you have the title deeds to an estate, 
except by taking them into actual possession ? 
How can you be sure that your friend loves 
you, except by believing him when he says so, 
and accepting the tokens and proofs he offers 
to you ? 

Such an objection is irrational, it expects 
a result without a cause, a consequence with- 
out an antecedence. The only way that you 
can be sure of your election is by doing what 



116 MAY I BELIEVE? 

the elect do. Read carefully Philippians ii. 
12, 13. 2 Pet. i. 10, 11. 1 John iii. 18, 19. 

"Well, but are not 'many called, and but 
few chosen?' '' Yes; but what has that to do 
with you? If you accept of Christ, if you 
believe as the few, does not that prove you to 
be one of the chosen? If you deliberately 
delay and refuse to believe in God's sincerity, 
in the gracious offer of life in Christ he makes 
to you, you not only have no present evidence 
that you are chosen, but you never can have ; 
and what is worse, continuing to reject Christ, 
you will die in your sins and be lost. 

"But are not many wrought upon so as to 
feel great distress, and fulfil many duties, 
such as prayer, reading and hearing the word 
of God, and abandonment of many sins, and 
after all never are saved, obtain no evidence 
that they are of the elect ?" We admit it ; but 
what then ? Do you mean to suggest that they 
accepted Christ, believed God's word, and yet 
were rejected ? If so, we deny the whole 
case, and ask you for the proof. But if you 
mean only, that notwithstanding their convic- 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 117 

tions, their troubles, and labours, they never 
accepted the Lord's gracious offer ; then we 
say they acted as you are now doing, and the 
result in their case is painfully indicative of 
what it will be in yours, if you for any cause re- 
fuse to take God at his word, and rest upon the 
absolute suflSciency of his warrant. The cer- 
tain knowledge of your election is not only 
not necessary to your believing, but cannot, 
under present circumstances, be obtained, as 
already suggested, except by the faith of the 
gospel. Nor is the certain knowledge of your 
election, in your sense of it, even essential to 
your salvation ; hence to delay or refuse to 
accept God's gracious offer of absolute pardon 
in Christ, is irrational as we have seen, offen- 
sive to God, a rejecting of Christ, a grieving 
of the Holy Spirit, and places your own salva- 
tion in most fearful jeopardy. 

If God arouses your conscience and gives 
you to feel your need of Christ, it is his com- 
mand to you to fly to him, accept of him and 
rest upon him. This is your duty and your 
privilege. With God's secret purpose of 



118 MAY I BELIEVE ? 

election or reprobation, you have nothing in 
the world to do. 

His decree or purpose of grace never pre- 
vented a single soul from coming to Christ, 
never repulsed one who was coming or wished 
to come ; but has saved, and will save millions — 
"a great multitude which no man can number'* 
— from rejecting him. But for this purpose 
not a soul would ever have been saved. 

" Grace first contrived the way 
To save rebellious man ; 
And all the steps that grace display, 
Which drew the wondrous plan. 

Grace all the work shall crown 

Through everlasting days ; 
It lays in heaven the topmost stone, 

And well deserves the praise." 

It will be time enough for you to investigate 
this great doctrine, when you have given your- 
self to Christ on the simple, yet all-sufficient 
warrant of God's sacred word. Grace calls 
you, is ready to aid you, and waits to receive 
you. Act, my friend, act quickly. 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 119 

*' The Spirit and the bride say, Come, 
Rejoicing saints, re-echo, Coraoj 
Who faints, who thirsts, who will, may come : 
Thy Saviour bids thee come." 

Let your reply be, 

*' Just as I am, thou wilt receive, 
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve j 
Because thy promise I believe : 
Lamb of God, I come !'* 

4. " But I am afraid I shall not be able to 
hold out, to fulfil the duties required of me. 
I see so many who profess to be Christians, 
who yet act as I would not, even now, that 
I fear I should be no better, and am not 
willing to be a reproach to religion. Besides 
I think I can do quite as much good out of 
the church as in it." 

Against this objection we might say much ; 
we shall not, however, attempt an answer at 
much length. 

It is manifestly founded in a total misappre- 
hension of the gospel covenant. The salva- 
tion offered to the faith of sinners is a finished 
one ; and therefore includes in its arrange- 



120 MAY I BELIEVE? 

ments, provision for every possible want of 
the believer. Christ is a perfect Saviour ; " in 
him it pleased the Father all fulness should 
dwell, and he is made of God unto us, wisdom, 
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." 
1 Cor. i. 30. " Christ is all in all." Col. 
iii. 11. 

He undertakes for the sinner in everything, 
and engages to bring him off conqueror and 
more than conqueror over every possible 
enemy. " Because Christ lives, the believer 
also lives." " He is able to save to the utter- 
most all that come unto God by him, seeing 
he ever liveth to make intercession for them." 
Heb. vii. 25. 

It is on this account that the very weakest 
believer is sure to triumph ; and the strongest 
has nothing which he receives not from Christ. 
The weak, therefore, need not fear, nor can 
the strong glory in anything of their own. 

On this account too, every class of sinners, 
at every period of life, are invited to Christ, 
and assured of a complete salvation. The 
most wretched and degraded, the veriest slave 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 121 

to appetite, lust, and passion, may expect a 
perfect victory as certainly as the outwardly 
pure and morally elevated in character. All 
are sinners : Christ is the only, yet he is a 
glorious and mighty Saviour. All need him, 
and all are equally safe in his hands. Hence 
the guilt and folly of rejecting such a Saviour 
are beyond comprehension. 

The objection we are considering is also of 
a character by no means free from guilt ; for 
while it mistakes the entire nature of the gos- 
pel covenant, it delays and refuses to accept 
of Christ as the only yet all-sufficient Saviour. 

The invitation which God extends to the 
sinner, includes the oifer of Christ and all the 
blessings purchased by his atoning blood. 
And as the duties of Christian life all arise 
out of the gospel, they are provided for in the 
fulness of Christ. 

To refuse the call of God in the gospel on the 
ground that you fear you will not be able to main- 
tain your christian character, is to suppose that 
you are expected or required to serve God in 

your own strength ; or that the Lord Jesus, 
11 



122 MAY I BELIEVE ? 

the great Surety of tlie covenantj has not power 
to perfect his own work. Either supposition 
is false, derogatory to God, dishonouring to 
Christ, and ruinous to your own soul. 

Paul said, '^I can do all things through 
Christ which strengtheneth me.'' Phil. iv. 13. 
So you too may say, and find in Christ infin- 
ite sufficiency for every exigence or conflict 
through which as a believer you may be called 
to pass. Your own strength or wisdom 
would of course be weakness and folly ; but 
when Christ volunteers to undertake for you, to 
be your guide, the Captain of your salvation, 
why, or what should you fear ? To fear, 
under such circumstances, is not only unmanly 
but sinful. It is to doubt the wisdom, power, 
goodness, truth, and faithfulness of God! 
And while you are committing all this sin 
against God, you think you are acting pru- 
dently — even respectfully to the gospel ! 

Rejecting Christ, prudent ! — respectful to 
his gospel ! My friend, can you not see the 
real character of your objection, that it is a 
mere excuse; and yet as such, involves not 



OR THE WARRANT OE FAITH. 123 

only self-deception, but enormous guilt ? You 
reject Christ, and yet smile complacently upon 
him, as though you should say to him, " I 
think very well of you, but am afraid to trust 
you to secure for me the salvation of my soul ? 
You may do for others, but I am afraid and 
cannot commit myself to your care !'' You 
decline to accept the invitation to the marriage 
supper of the Lamb, and yet profess great 
respect for his service ! Where can such a 
course end ? It can terminate only in eternal 
death. Are you prepared for this ? Then 
turn to Him who offers you a gratuitous par- 
don in Christ, and who gives you perfect war- 
ranty that " all things are yours, and ye are 
Christ's, and Christ is God's/' " Escape for thy 
life, look not behind thee, neither stay thou in 
all the plain ; escape to the mountain lest thou 
be consumed." Gen. xix. 18. What then you 
do, do quickly. Purge yourself from the 
enormous guilt which attaches to your conduct. 
^'Be not afraid, only believe." Mark v. 36. 
Accept now the offered mercy, and " rejoice 



124 MAY I BELIEVE? 

in Christ Jesus, having no confidence in the 
flesh." 

Look not to the failures of others : with 
these you have nought to do, unless to weep 
over them. The conduct of men, either in 
virtue or folly, is not the standard by which 
you are to be judged, nor yet, by which you 
are to acquire either knowledge or motive for 
your own personal duty. 

If all should fail, it would not exonerate 
you. Others act, and are responsible for 
themselves, not for you, in your personal re- 
lations to God. It is your duty not only to 
comply with the gospel ofler, but to maintain 
a walk and conversation becoming the gospel. 
That you are not, or may not be able in your 
own strength so to do, is no release from the 
obligation ; for the grace which oflers a gratu- 
itous pardon secures all needed strength 
for your future walk, and final triumph. As 
we have seen, it is the special ofiice and pur- 
pose of Christ, to carry you safely through. 
If others fail, you need not. They, not you, 
must answer for it ; and no failure of men or 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 125 

angels can justify you in neglecting your 
personal duty to your God and Saviour. 
Your own duty is plain, delay not to fulfil it. 
Deceive not yourself, moreover, with the 
idea, that you can be even more useful out of 
the church than in it. You can't be useful as 
a Christian, any where, until you become one ; 
and to be one, you must accept, upon God's 
warrant, the promise of eternal life in Christ 
Jesus. This is the first step. Every thing is 
disobedience until you yield to the call of God. 
If you delay to do this under the plea that 
you can be more useful without it, or without 
professing it, you arrogate a right to change 
God's plans, and a wisdom superior to his, as 
to the way in which you can do most for him ! 
Until you yourself have accepted an offered 
pardon, and found the preciousness of a 
Saviour, how can you recommend either to 
others ? What can you do, that will honour 
Christ more and commend him more to men, 
than humbly to accept him, and serve him 
with sincere, earnest, uncompromising devo- 
tion ? 
11* 



126 MAY I BELIEVE ? 

Your wisdom is of the earth, earthy. To 
satisfy an uneasy conscience you make this 
concession to religion (a wonderful one in- 
deed !) that it is all right to be a Christian ; 
but though- Christ says, " Come out from the 
world, and be ye separate ;" " If any man will 
come after me, let him deny himself, and take 
up his cross and follow me ;" yet in my case, 
it is not necessary ; I can do quite as much 
good, if not more, by remaining among the 
enemies of Christ, neglecting his commands, 
and refusing to acknowledge him in his own 
appropriate way ! ! 

Does not such a statement carry its own refu- 
tation, and expose its own folly ? But is it not 
an exact counterpart to your own conduct, to 
the principle on which you object to an imme- 
diate acceptance of a finished salvation offered 
to you without money and without price ? Are 
yotir moral sensibilities so blunted that you 
cannot perceive this ? Others can, if you 
cannot, and it behoves you at once to abandon 
so fond but feeble a delusion. 

Even if, in a special case, your influence as 



If 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. * 127 

(an unconverted, non-professing man could be 
I exerted to restrain some vice, or promote some 
moral virtue, more than one known to be a 
Christian, or than you could, if you were 
, known to be such ; this would not aflfect the 
T principle on which we are urging you to act, 
in the least. Do you not see that it is not as 
a Christian that your influence is exerted or 
felt ; or if it be, it is not known or acknow- 
ledged ? and hence you are acting covertly, 
deceitfully, and how far from hypocritically, 
you may possibly be able to judge. And then 
if your argument be good, it is too good ; if 
good for you, why not for another ? And 
then, why not for all ? What then would be- 
come of the Christian name and profession ? 
what of the church as a visible body ? Utterly 
unknown ; worse still, reduced to hypocrisy 
on principle. I am a Christian, but I must 
let no one know it ; for my influence will be 
lessened, and what I do for Christ must be 
done under false colours. Instead of wearing 
the livery of heaven in which to serve the 
devil, I must wear his livery in order best to 



^? 



128' MAY I BELIEVE? 

serve Christ ! Out upon such logic, upon 
such delusion : it bears the broad seal of the 
pit. It would reduce the church to the miser- 
able character, which many now attribute to 
her — that of an unmitigated hypocrisy. 

More than all, it is an open, palpable rejec- 
tion of God's plan ; and involves a refusal to I 
obey his command, to repent and believe the 
gospel : it is nothing more, nothing less, than 
a rejection of Christ, the very thing we are 
urging you not to do. '' He that is not with 
me, is against me. He that gathereth not 
with me scattereth abroad.'' Matt. xii. 30. 
You are urging an objection, not against 
accepting a free salvation, so much, as against 
any salvation by Christ at all. You change 
the whole question we are discussing with 
you; it is not "may I believe?" but ''need I?" 
"can I not do better without believing?" 

Be assured that if God deem it necessary 
or desirable to offer you the privilege, there is 
seen, on his part, to exist a strong necessity 
on yours to accept of it. He makes no idle 
offer, and presents no privilege, w^hich does 



I 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 129 

not meet some defect in you, and by the 
acceptance and improvement of "which you 
would not be happier and better. 

The fact then that he makes to you the 
standing offer of a gratuitous pardon and ac- 
ceptance in Christ, is clear evidence that you 
need it, and may this moment embrace it. 

"Do you mean to say, that without any 
amendment, or preparation on my part I may 
now believe in Jesus Christ, and rest with 
cheerful hope and confident expectation upon 
him for every blessing of salvation V 

Precisely. " And may every sinner hearing 
the gospel offer accept it in like manner?'' 
Without a doubt, why not? What amend- 
ment or preparation, did Peter make ? John 
i. 41, 42. Or Matthew? ix. 9. Or Saul of 
Tarsus, when he said, '' Lord, what wilt thou 
have me to do?" Acts ix. 6. Or the Jailer 
at Philippi ? Acts xvi. 30 — 34. 

What amendment could the dying thief 
make ? 

The ofi'er is made to you now, in your pre- 
sent condition ; not as you can make yourself 



130 MAY I BELIEVE ? 

by amendment and preparation ; you may 
die, before the work be done, and what then 
will become of your soul ? The oflfer as now 
made would not then meet your condition. 

Besides, what preparation do you as a guilty 
sinner need but to accept the pardon offered — 
to believe the truth and faithfulness of God ? 
And what amendment do you need, or can 
you make, other or better than that which 
Christ proposes and designs to effect for you ? 

Only on the principle that God's offer in 
the gospel is the sinner's immediate, highest, 
and best warrant to accept it, can we urge all 
living men every where and in every condition 
to secure by faith an interest in the finished 
salvation of Christ Jesus. 

Blessed be God, this is all we need. With 
this, we may go to the palace, or descend into 
the haunts of vice, the very pathways of death, 
and call upon men to repent and believe, as- 
suring them of immediate acceptance, peace, 
and joy with God. To all we may say in 
God's glorious and gracious name : 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 131 

"We're travelliDg home to heaven above, 

Will you go ? 
To sing the Saviour's dying love, 

Will you go ? 
Millions have reached that blest abode, 
Anointed kings and priests to God, 
And millions more are on the road, 

Will you go ? 

Ye weary, heavy laden come, 

Will you go ? 
In the blest house there still is room. 

Will you go ? 
The Lord is waiting to receive ; 
If thou wilt on him now believe, 
Thy troubled conscience, he'll relieve, 

Come, believe." 

Nothing can give greater security than the 
word of God ; and no warrant can authorize 
your immediate acceptance of salvation from 
sin by faith in Christ more directly or posi- 
tively than the offer he makes to you at this 
moment. 

'' Believe and be saved." This is all. All 
needed on earth, all desired in heaven. Con- 
sider, it is a finished salvation ; everything 
from the first conviction to the crown of glory 



132 MAY I BELIEVE ? 

is provided for, and secured by tlie Lord Jesus. 
He says, ^' Come, for all things are ready/' 
Will you now believe ? Will you now accept ? 

CONCLUSIOlSr. 

" You meet me so often with the declar- 
ation and proofs of a free gospel, that I am 
shut up to the faith ; but still my mind is ha- 
rassed with this one remaining perplexity. 
If to me who am so great a sinner, a finished 
salvation is so freely offered, or rather if the 
gospel be so free that all who will may partake 
of it, why should any one be urged to faith ? 
Will not salvation come as a matter of course? 
If all is provided for in Christ, why demand 
anything of me ?" 

Truly, extremes meet. " The corruption 
of the best is the worst.'' Out of this glo- 
rious doctrine of a salvation by grace, we have 
the base and degenerate growth of many dan- 
gerous and even damnable heresies, plausible 
at first sight, and claiming a logical descent 
from this great essential and fundamental doc- 
trine. Put though to the ignorant or unre- 



t 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 133 

fleeting these may appear veritable offshoots, 
— a true natural growth ; they are mere para- 
sites concealing, and, if not removed, prevent- 
ing, all true developments of the parent stock. 
Those which now most distinctly intrude upon 
our attention, are the presumptuous teachings of 
Universalism with all its licentious tendencies ; 
and the carnal security and cold indifference 
of Antinomian arrogance and assumption. 
Though apparently wide apart, and one more 
sanctimonious than the other, these are kindred 
heresies, and die alike by the simple applica- 
tion of gospel truth. Of the one or other 
of these you seem to be now specially in 
danger. 

But in answer to your question, let me say, 
you mistake again the nature of the gospel 
covenant and the gospel offer. This covenant 
was never intended to secure its own applica- 
tion independent of any approval, choice, or 
acceptance on the sinner's part, nor is the 
actual gospel offer intended so to operate. 
This would destroy moral agency, and render 

salvation a mere opus operatum^ the result of 
12 



134 MAY I BELIEVE? 

power wholly from without. We can suppose 
that bare omnipotence could thus save a soul, 
but it would be a mere physical act, independ- 
ent of any choice or pleasure ; or, peradven- 
ture, against all choice or pleasure on the part 
of the soul saved. On this principle it might 
be a free gospel, but it would supersede all 
moral feeling on the part of the sinner. 
Willing or unwilling, he would be saved. 

But is this the gospel of Jesus Christ? 
Very far from it. This offers indeed salvation 
freely, a full, a finished salvation ; but the offer 
must be accepted, the salvation must be chosen 
to become effectual. Not that its power lies 
in the will or choice of the sinner, but this 
choice is the occasion of its development. It 
places the soul in connection with the power. 
How this choice is itself effectuated, we need 
not now discuss. We speak simply of the 
fact that a choice must be put forth. 

Food may be offered to the hungry, or 
clothing to the naked ; but one must be ac- 
cepted and eaten, and the other put on, before 
any possible benefit can be obtained. The 



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH. 135 

man suffering from thirst will continue to 
suffer, if, though pure refreshing water be 
offered to him freely, he yet persistently 
refuses to accept the offered beverage. It is 
but the universal law, that, no matter how free 
any gift or privilege may be, it must be re- 
ceived; it must be appropriated before its 
benefits can be enjoyed. Water may be all 
around a thirsty one — may rise to his very 
chin, yet if he never drink it will avail him 
not ; he may perish in the very presence of 
that which would, if appropriated, revive and 
sustain his life. 

This act of appropriation, in reference to 
the blessings involved and contemplated in 
the gospel offer, is developed by faith. Faith 
confides in the promise of a pardon and accept- 
ance with God ; and he who so confides, receives 
and enjoys peace with God, and a happiness at 
once of the purest and most purifying charac- 
ter. Faith is the deliberate, joyful acceptance 
of God's method of reconciliation, and be- 
comes the bond of union between Christ and 
the soul. 



136 MAY I BELIEVE? 

Being one with Christ, it seeks and strives 
to be like him. And thus each believing soul 
lives, walks, and triumphs by faith. Faith 
seizes upon every promise, and extracts from 
it life-giving elements. It is the principle by 
which the soul apprehends the elements of 
life in Christ, feeds upon him, and assimilates 
itself to him. Without this, therefore, the 
entire work of Christ is of no value to the sin- 
ner, and every promise of a faithful and 
unchanging God a dead letter. 

Universalism can have no place in such a 
system. Though the offer of pardon in Christ 
be sufficiently comprehensive to embrace every 
believer; it embraces, and in the nature of 
things as a free gospel can embrace, none others. 

The same principle, precisely, saps the deep- 
est foundation of Antinomian security. Whilst 
it is true that Christ has purchased a free and 
full salvation, and nothing is now demanded 
of the sinner to perfect or strengthen that 
purchase, yet the work of Christ for the sin- 
ner must be accepted by him ; he must be 
identified with the atoning Surety; must be 



OR THE WARRANT OP FAITH. 137 

willing to abandon every hope and foundation 
of his own and rest upon Christ. This can be 
done but by faith ; and while faith fulfils the 
office of a receiver, it combines also the func- 
tion of nutrition and assimilation. Where 
these last are not developed, no reception has 
ever taken place. Everything will act out 
its own nature. If faith be in existence, how- 
ever feebly, it will to that extent nourish its 
own peculiar life in the soul, and assimilate it 
to Christ. It cannot be otherwise. 

What foundation then for a system so cold 
and unfruitful in all the healthful activities 
of a Christian life ? 

A candid consideration of these thoughts 
will, I trust, commend these truths to your 
entire confidence, and lead you to feel that 
you are indeed shut up unto the faith. 

God ofi*ers you now, upon the basis of the 
Redeemer's work, a gratuitous pardon and the 
fulness of peace, and hope for this life and 
the life to come. 

You may now believe, and believing, possess 

the highest possible security for a perfect and 
12* 



138 MAY I BELIEVE? 

glorious victory over sin, death, and hell. 
You may now become one with Christ, and 
receive his assurance that you shall be fully 
fitted for the inheritance of the saints in light. 
Will you so receive this free, this glorious 
salvation? No objection can lie against it. 
While many may be offered, none can endure 
the test of a rational and scriptural examina- 
tion. 

You have but the one alternative placed 
before you ; believe and be saved, neglect or 
refuse to believe, and you perish without the 
possibility of hope. " Turn ye, turn ye, for 
why will ye die ? Turn ye to the stronghold, 
ye prisoners of hope." 

With grateful, penitent, joyful, believing 
emotions, fall at the feet of Jesus and cry, 
''Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief.'* 
'' Lamb of God, I come, I come." 




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